Princess bid invalid: Madgavkar
Warns Govt over move to award contract to Titan
SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANJIM, JULY 17
In an interesting development, Madgavkar Salvage, one of the two bidders short-listed for the removal of the River Princess, has threatened to move the High Court if the contract is awarded to Singapore-based company Titan Salvage citing several discrepancies.
Sources disclosed that the State Disaster Management Committee seems impressed with the Titan bid and had asked company representatives to come down and give some more details on their offer.
Claiming that Titan Salvage bid was invalid and deserved to be rejected, Madgavkar Salvage has sent a notice to the Director of Tourism and the Collector (Authorised Officers) stating they would take legal action against the Government, if the contract was awarded to the Singapore-based company.
The company’s contention is that Titan Salvage has not submitted their offer on “No Cure No Pay” basis as required by the tender.
“Titan Salvage has stated in their tender offer that all the pieces of the wreck must be disposed off by the Government, although the tender notice clearly stipulates that contractor must dispose off the scrap”, Anil Madgavkar, partner of the company said.
Also, Titan Salvage has submitted a daily hire rate for their vessels and equipment and has not given a lump sum quotation in their financial bid as required in the tender notice, he added. “The price quoted by Titan is also Rs 25 crore higher than that quoted by Madgavkar Salvage”, Madgavkar stated.
In view of the above, Titan Salvage should have been disqualified immediately by the Government, he said.
Madgavkar has expressed surprise that instead of outright rejecting the tender of Titan Salvage, the Government is now proposing to award the work of removal of River Princess to them.
The ship was grounded in July 2000 on a stormy night and since the last ten years successive Governments have made attempts to remove the ill-fated ship but to no avail.
Director of Tourism Swapnil Naik admitted receiving Madgavkar’s notice.
“We have received the letter but we have not yet responded to it”, Naik told Herald.
Further, he stated that the Government feels there should not be any confrontation in this regard. “We are hopeful that the issue is resolved amicably”, he said adding, “in the end our aim is to remove the ship from the shore”.
