Now, contractors can lease equipment

The Greater Chennai Corporation has revised its tender rules for road-cut patch-up work in seven areas allowing contractors to take equipment on lease. This comes after a report highlighted how the civic body in its tender rules had introduced an ownership clause for equipment worth Rs 2 crore that restricted smaller contractors from participating in improving the key components of logistics, including customs performance, infrastructure quality, logistics service quality, tracking and tracing, timeliness of shipments and Trading Across Border (TAB), tractor or bobcat vehicle and mechanical sprayers. While these are small work costing between Rs 8 to 15 lakh per project, only smaller contractors below class-three grade participate in it. However, with the ownership clause, only bigger contractors would become eligible to participate. This, the contractors said, favoured bigger contractors.