Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Oct 9: After a bumpy and vain ride for more than one and half year, the much talked about project of Critical Care Ambulances for emergency services along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, is back to square one as the Government is going to invite fresh tenders for the same.
Accepting the departmental committee report on the complaints against alleged irregularities in the rate contract for converting and fabricating of vehicles as Critical Care Ambulance, the Government has cancelled the agreement finalized with a private firm that was allotted the tender, authoritative sources informed the Excelsior.
Fresh tender is being invited within a week taking into consideration all the set guidelines and norms for such contracts and process in this regard is already on, sources added.
Pertinent to mention here that even after the passage of over one and half a year since procurement of 25 vehicles for their modification as Critical Care Ambulances, the proposal in this regard could not take practical shape following a controversy over the rate contract finalized between the Government and Himachal Pradesh based firm M/s Esteem Industries INC, which was awarded the tender.
The tenders were advertised and the order was placed to the firm in 2012 after approval of the rate. However, the rate contract and the order in favour of this firm were kept in abeyance by the Government for certain reasons. This was challenged by the firm in the court, which quashed the abeyance order.
Meanwhile, some other competitor firms submitted their complaints to the Government against alleged flaws in the rate contract. Acting on these complaints, the Government constituted a committee to look into the objections and submit a report to the Director Health Services Jammu.
The committee, headed by then Deputy Director Health (Headquarters) Baldev Raj Sharma and comprising Chief Accounts Officer, Medical Superintendent Gandhi Nagar Hospital and Dr K K Gupta as the members, studied all the complaints and prepared a detailed report, which was submitted to the then Director Health Jammu, who forwarded the same to the Administrative Department for further action.
According to the sources, the Administrative Department took cognizance of the report, which pointed out some abnormalities and lacunas in the rate contract and decided to cancel the agreement after taking technical opinion of the Finance Department also.
As the controversy over rate contract is closed now, fresh tender is being invited by the Directorate of Health, Jammu within one week for converting 12 vehicles into Critical Care Ambulances, sources informed adding that out of the 25 Ambulances, 13 have been sanctioned for Kashmir and 12 for Jammu province.
Since the process of inviting fresh tenders and the procedure thereafter in awarding the rate contract to new firm is understood to take some time, the much needed Critical Care Ambulances are unlikely to be made available for emergency services in next few months, sources admitted.
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