Telangana’s ₹1,034-crore tender hides the ₹600-crore question
Sushee says it was cheaper by more than ₹600 crore; HGCL’s comparative bid sheet remains out of public view while the High Court challenge continues.
The tender moves ahead; the comparison remains behind the curtain.
The Telangana government is pushing ahead with the Radial Road-2 tender while the one document that could settle its central financial dispute remains unavailable: the comparative bid sheet. Sushee Infra and Mining Limited says its bid was more than ₹600 crore lower than the successful bidder’s. That is Sushee’s claim, not an established saving. The public record currently proves neither the figure nor the alleged loss to the state.
The project, awarded through Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited, is divided into three packages covering about 81.15 km from the Outer Ring Road at Kothwalguda/Budwel to NH-167N near Nacharam. Package 3 alone is listed at an estimated ₹1,034.47 crore, while Package 2 is listed at about ₹1,024.56 crore. NCC is identified as the published L1 bidder for Package 1, but the available tender mirror does not show the full bid comparison.
Sushee challenged its technical disqualification after the October 7 evaluation. Reports say the dispute centres on an experience certificate that lacked a countersignature from a Superintending Engineer. Sushee argues that the issuing Executive Engineer was designated as a Superintending Engineer and that HGCL should have sought clarification instead of rejecting the bid. The government’s reported position is that Sushee did not meet the technical eligibility requirement. The High Court declined an immediate halt to the tender process and said any finalisation would remain subject to further orders. It has not decided whether the disqualification was valid.
That leaves the Congress government in Telangana defending a technical exclusion while keeping the financial consequence behind a curtain. The missing documents include the disqualification notice, technical evaluation, comparative bid sheet and award records. Until they are published, “₹600 crore cheaper” is a courtroom argument, not a saving Telangana can count. A government asking people to trust the tender while withholding the receipt is not demonstrating transparency; it is outsourcing scrutiny to a court that has not yet ruled.