Low turnout: Auction held for parking lots

Companies believed the auction would be held afresh once the govt is formed.

LAHORE:

Only three out of 14 companies that had previously expressed interest in bidding for 200 parking lots in the city took part in the auction held by the Lahore Parking Company (LPC) on Tuesday. 

The LPC had taken out an advertisement on February 17 for the establishment, operations and management of the automated parking system at 200 parking lots. The Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Toll Link, Inbox, AGCN, UCS, Mesi Enterprises, Golden Eagle Training, Chaudary and Company, Vital International, KT, AA Enterprises, Future Link Green Parking, Theta Technology (PVT) Ltd and ICT had procured the bid documents and participated in the pre-bid conference held on March 4. The auction was scheduled for March 19 but the companies requested more time to examine the parking lots and the date was moved to April 2. Later, Toll Link, AGCN, ICT and FWO requested the LPC to extend the date further and it was moved to April 16.

However, only UCS, AGCN and Mansha Brothers participated in the final auction. Several companies that did not participate in the auction told the LPC that the recent transfer of its managing director had made them wary considering the MDs of the Lahore Transport Company and the LWMC had not been transferred. Former Works and Services EDO Chaudhry Muhammad Irshad is the new MD of the LPC.

LPC official Fasi udDin said several companies thought that bids would be called afresh once a new government was formed. He added however that the auction was held in accordance with the law so that there was no reason for it to be cancelled. Irshad opened the technical bids and said the LPC would require at least a week for their assessment. Financial bids of the firms that fulfilled the technical requirements would be opened later, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2013.