Patna: The Nitish Kumar-headed Bihar government has cancelled a tender awarded for construction of a mega bridge because two of the four contractors selected for the project had Chinese partners.
“Two of the four contractors selected for construction of a new, had Chinese partners. We asked them to change their partners but they didn’t, so we cancelled the tender. We have called for fresh applications,” state minister for road construction Nand Kishore Yadav Yadav was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The 14.5 km long project in Patna includes construction of a 5.6 km bridge which runs parallel to the iconic four-lane Mahatma Gandhi Setu across the Ganges on NH 19.
The total cost was estimated at Rs 29.26 billion and it was supposed to be completed in three-and-a-half years.
Among the bidders for the prestigious project were China Harbour Engineering Company and Shaanxi Road Bridge Group Company (JV). The Union government’s cabinet committee on economic affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, had cleared it.
But the situation has altered dramatically since then, with India and China engaged in a bitter border dispute in the Ladakh region. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley 12 days ago.
There have been widespread calls for boycott of Chinese products and business entities.
Earlier this week, Maharashtra government put on hold the memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth Rs 5,020 crore recently signed with three Chinese companies.
