On April 27, the government had approved 11 elevated corridors spanning approximately 75.6 km at an estimated cost of Rs 13,262.70 crore. The projects were planned to be executed by Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited (B-SMILE) for the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) across five city corporations.
In August and September, B-SMILE sought approval for tenders covering several proposed corridors, including a 5.2-km stretch from Sirsi Circle to Nayandahalli on Mysuru Road, a 1.5-km corridor connecting Doddaballapura Road to the NH-7 Navayuga flyover at Kogilu Circle, and a 0.5-km split flyover at MEI Junction on Tumkur Road.
An empowered committee meeting on September 16 constituted a sub-committee headed by GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao to review the eight proposals. The sub-committee submitted its report on September 30, recommending cancellation of all eight tenders because of deficiencies in the documentation.
The review found that the tender documents combined provisions from Karnataka Works-4 contracts and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) documents, along with other clauses. The committee noted that government approval for this composite format had not been produced.
The report identified 13 common issues across the contracts, including the absence of clear deadlines for contractor payments, inadequate provisions for calculating the cost of additional work and inconsistencies in maintenance payment clauses. It also flagged penalty calculations for construction delays that were based on individual milestone payments rather than the total contract value.
At Sirsi Circle, the maintenance amount specified in the contract was approximately Rs 20.19 crore, compared with an estimated Rs 4.01 crore. Other concerns included unclear provisions for security deposits and advance recovery, clauses that could make contractors liable for delays caused by utility agencies, and the absence of an explicit contractor termination right if the authority failed to meet its obligations.
The committee also flagged the removal of the arbitration clause without an alternative dispute-resolution mechanism. In addition, while bid validity was set at 180 days, earnest money could remain tied up for around 360 days and was refundable only after the contract was awarded.
The sub-committee recommended cancelling the tenders before formal acceptance, refunding bidders’ earnest money and preparing fresh project-specific tender documents for approval by the Finance Department. The proposed revisions are intended to address the identified contractual and procedural deficiencies before the projects are retendered.
