The UP government is planning to hand over its Rs 1,500 crore IT City project in Lucknow to the lone bidder HCL Enterprise that had turned up for bidding a month ago. The proposal will be put up before the cabinet for approval. A single bid for government projects is usually cancelled and fresh tenders are floated but given the poor response to its other infrastructure projects,the government has decided to go ahead with HCL for the IT City project. The project is to be developed on 100 acres of land at Chak Ganjaria farm on Lucknow-Sultanpur road. While HCL Enterprise had submitted its bid on November 23,the government decided to wait for another week before opening the tender. However,HCL remained the lone bidder even after November 30. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services,Hewlett-Packard,Advanced Micro Devices and CA Technologies had shown interest in the project,but most of them backed out during the final tender process citing economic scenario. The government made several attempts to woo investors. But only one bidder turned up and there is no point to go through the same process again. There is no technical hurdle in going ahead with a single bidder as the developer,HCL Enterprise,is technically qualified and bid criteria does not restrict the government from selecting the single bidder for the project, said a senior government officer.
