News: GMCBL Rewrites Bus Fleet Tender After DIMTS Objections-31-03-2026
Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Ltd (GMCBL) has changed the terms of a tender for a new firm to manage its bus fleet after the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS), which currently does the job, alleged that the original conditions would "seriously restrict wider participation", officials said Friday.
The tender was floated on February 6, with bids initially due by February 26. DIMTS wrote to GMCBL on February 19 and February 26 pointing to what it called major discrepancies, and on March 9 to GMDA chief executive officer PC Meena, who is also chairman of GMCBL’s board. HT has accessed the letters.
DIMTS said the Request for Proposal was "quite similar" to one issued by a municipal corporation in Maharashtra in 2023 that drew only two bids. It objected to the Quality cum Cost Based Selection method giving 80% weightage to the technical score and 20% to the financial bid. It also noted that liquidated damages during implementation were capped at Rs 3 lakh and penalties at 2.5% of monthly fees, and recommended penalty caps of 10% to 20% as per standard practice.
GMCBL moved the bid deadline to March 16 and then to April 1 and issued a corrigendum. The penalty limit is now 10% of the monthly invoice amount, and the weightage is 70% technical and 30% financial. Figures in physical annexures of the financial bid must match online submissions, with online values prevailing.
Vishwajeet Chaudhary, CEO and director, GMCBL, said every discrepancy raised by DIMTS has been rectified. He said the tender was floated because GMCBL never had a formal agreement with DIMTS, which joined as a consultant in 2018 with the aim of building GMCBL’s capability to run its own fleet in five years. That did not happen, so DIMTS continued. The new firm will also work only as a consultant, he added.
