Mohali, 29 January 2025: After five unsuccessful attempts to finalize its ₹31-crore advertisement tender, the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MC) finally awarded five separate tenders worth ₹27.78 crore to a Ludhiana-based company in its sixth attempt.
The civic body had previously reduced the tender value to ₹28.5 crore before approving the latest contracts during the finance and contract committee (F&CC) meeting on Tuesday.
Mayor Amarjit Singh Sidhu called it a “significant step” for the MC, stating that the five contracts would generate substantial revenue. A sixth tender, requiring legal scrutiny, was referred for legal advice and will be addressed in the next meeting.
The sixth tender remained unresolved due to a bid discrepancy. The same company, which secured the other five tenders, mistakenly quoted an exorbitant ₹16 crore for advertisement rights at 33 bus queue shelters. MC officials, initially optimistic about the unexpected revenue boost, were later informed by the company that they had intended to bid ₹1.65 lakh but made a clerical error.
Despite the error, MC accepted the five tenders and forwarded the sixth one to the local bodies government for further review.
“As per rules, the company should have either paid ₹44 crore in total for the bid or faced blacklisting,” an MC official noted. “Yet, the civic body approved their other tenders and escalated the sixth case to higher authorities.”
Mayor Sidhu clarified that since the mistake was identified within an hour, the case was referred to the local bodies department. “It was a clerical issue, and we chose not to award the tender. The MC hasn’t suffered any losses as the tender for the bus queue shelters can be reopened, potentially attracting more competitive bids,” he stated. The final decision now rests with the director of the local government bodies.
₹3-Crore Development Work Approved
The F&CC meeting also approved ₹3 crore in work orders for various infrastructure projects in Mohali. Senior Deputy Mayor Amreek Singh Somal, Commissioner T Benith, and other MC officials were present.
During the last three MC House meetings, councillors raised allegations of corruption and questioned why a vigilance probe had not been initiated despite passing a resolution. They criticized the civic body’s failure to achieve its projected ₹31-crore revenue target for 2023-24, noting that only ₹6.11 crore was earned despite widespread hoarding allocations across the city.
Repeated Tender Failures and Rate Adjustments
MC initially designated 339 sites for advertisement, but 19 were removed due to road widening by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in Phases 8 to 11. Previously, in 2015, over 10 tenders for 186 sites were awarded for ₹9.24 crore. In 2018, a 10% hike raised the tender value to ₹9.72 crore.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, contractors surrendered sites citing financial losses. By 2023, 153 new locations were added, bringing the total to 339. However, the civic body also increased the rates for 186 existing sites by 24%, proposing a ₹31-crore tender, which failed to attract bidders five times.
In a fifth attempt, MC divided the city into four zones with smaller tenders to attract contractors for 2024-25. That strategy also failed, ultimately leading to the successful allocation of ₹27.78 crore worth of contracts in the sixth bid.
