ISLAMABAD: The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) on Monday re-auctioned the Diplomatic Shuttle Service in 93.4 million rupees to Bilal Travel and Tours for three years, after the refusal of the first and second successful bidders.
The last bidding was held on 25 November 2016 and 11 companies participated in the bidding process. Then, the contract was awarded to the Diplomatic Facilitation Services for Rs 106 million to run the facility for three years.
Accordingly, even auctioning the third time with spending millions on re-tender advertisements, the MCI had just got the bid of 93.4million- much less than the previous one.
In June 2016, the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) had awarded the contract for the service to a controversial firm for Rs67 million a year.
However, on June 30, then CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal rejected the contract as it was the same firm which had been operating the service for 14 years through a much-criticised joint venture with the CDA. After the cancellation of the said contract, the DMA took control of the service until November.
In an advertisement, the MCI had fixed the per round fare in the air conditioned coasters, not older than 2013 model, at Rs200 and Rs500 fare was fixed for the executive service, which was a trip in a 1300 CC car, no later than 2015 model.
And just after two days from 1st advertisement, the MCI took a U-turn and came up with a corrigendum, announcing that the successful bidder will be charging Rs500 per trip in the coasters and Rs1, 000 per trip for the executive service.
In the corrigendum, the MCI also removed the condition of having five years’ experience in the field of transport for participating bidders.
The third-time auction was held at the DMA office and seven parties participated including Diplomatic Shuttle Transport Service, Sarfraz Associates (PVT).Ltd, Waleed Associates, Islamabad Bus Terminal, Pak Limousine Services (PVT).Ltd, Bilal Travel and Tours, and Faizan Communications.
It is pertinent to mention here that following the 9/11 attacks in the United States the government decided to ban the entry of private vehicles into the Diplomatic Enclave and introduced the DSS for visitors and visa applicants to get to and from various diplomatic missions.
The auction was attended by Member Planning Asad Kiyani, Director DMA Tahir Shahbaz, Director Security Faheem Badshah, Director Finance and DMA Deputy Director Ali Sufyan.
