AHMEDABAD: The Rs 20-crore sports complex behind NID campus on the west bank of the Sabarmati riverfront, was handed over to the Ahmedabad City Tennis Foundation for ‘operation and maintenance’ for three years without competitive bidding. On Monday, a proposal was placed before the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) board seeking exemption from the bidding process. It was sanctioned unanimously.
An SRFDCL official on condition of anonymity said that the job was handed over to this the foundation unanimously after a senior official tabled the proposal.
According to the revenue sharing model in the contract, SRFDCL will get 20% of the annual revenue and Ahmedabad City Tennis Foundation will get 80%. On February 8, a similar move was vehemently resisted by Hitesh Barot, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) standing committee chairman and director of SRFDCL, who asked how a government-run company could hand over a publicly-funded sports complex to a private entity without competitive bidding. The riverfront sports complex has four cricket practice pitches, five tennis courts, four multi-purpose courts, two volleyball courts, two basketball courts, a pickleball court, a gymnasium, a skating rink, a skateboard arena, an 800-metre jogging track, a children’s play area and two food courts.
After Barot’s protest a tender was floated by SRFDCL in March 2022, a copy of which is with TOI. Strangely, the earnest money deposit (EMD) for this tender was Rs 5 lakh, but the document did not state a base price, said a senior SRFDCL official. The tender document had several conditions, worth 70 marks, as qualifying criteria for bidders.
