Why no transparency in Amaravati's construction contracts, asks Hyderabad HC

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday questioned the Andhra Pradesh government on the construction contracts to foreign companies for various buildings in its upcoming capital of Amaravati.

The Times of India reported that the court was dealing with a plea filed by Aditya housing company which challenged the methods being followed in developing an area of the capital extending to as much as 6.84 sqkm.

The report adds:

Appearing for the petitioner firm, senior counsel D Prakash Reddy told the court that the state was adopting the `Swiss challenge' method to award the contract. Under this method, proposals given by various contractors would be kept open so that others could quote better prices for contracts. Reddy argued that the state had not disclosed anything about offers by foreign companies on revenue sharing etc. Such non-disclosures were not in keeping with the spirit of `Swiss challenge' method, he said. 

However, the Andhra government argued that disclosing the details of the tenders was not in public interest before asking that the offer of revenue sharing be treated as ‘Proprietary information’ - which was turned down by the court.

The Hindu reported:

The judge also took note of the contention of the Advocate-General that the petitioner was not qualified to bid for the work and that such company cannot file the case. The judge gave the government time to file a counter so that the interim orders could be delivered on Friday.