No more truck trouble

BANGALORE: Timely Euro-4 clearance to the Indian Truck Manufacturers saved crores of rupees to the fund-starved Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which is in the process of procuring 79 trucks for various purposes.The BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy said, “We had to invite a global tender after the high court directed us to import the trucks if we do not get ingeniously manufactured Euro IV Trucks and fortunately for us Tata Motors and Ashok Lyland got Euro IV clearances in time.Therefore we could award tenders to procure 12 jetting machines and maintain them for three years for Rs 7.5 crore with the World Bank and JNNRUM aid.If not, we will have to shell out at least five times as the imported trucks cost five times more than the locally manufactured trucks.” According to Ramamurthy the BWSSB had earlier invited local tenders to procure over 30 water tankers, 42 jetting machines and seven super sucker machines twice.None of the local agencies had participated in the tenders as none of the truck manufacturers had obtained clearances.According to the rules, the government agencies have to procure only Euro IV vehicles for their activities in the metro cities.As the ingeniously manufactured Euro IV trucks were not available, the high court had directed the BWSSB to call global tenders and import Euro IV trucks.So, the BWSSB had to invite global tenders for the first time in history.When the BWSSB was in the process of awarding the tenders, Tata Motors and Ashok Lyland procured the necessary Euro IV clearances and that saved at least Rs 100 crore for the BWSSB.