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Wasa's bottle project faces goons' threat

Staff Correspondent
Threats and interference from ruling party hoodlums and influential quarters have forced Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) to cancel its tender for construction of a pure water bottling plant.
Wasa sources said the rescheduled tender was due to be received on June 15 but an influential quarter and its armed hoodlums prevented bona fide bidders including a Chinese firm from submitting their bids.
Prospective bidders alleged when they witnessed presence of the hoodlums, they were 'too frightened' to buy the tender schedules being sold at designated banks in the city.
However, Wasa officials will convene a board meeting tomorrow to decide the fate of the project.
The Wasa sources said from the first day of the tender notice in the end of April, several members of a clique visited the project office at the Wasa Bhaban in Karwan Bazar.
"The men identified themselves as leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal from Dhaka University and threatened us with dire consequences if we did not hand them over a list of buyers of tender schedule," said a Wasa source.
"They used to appear every day and keep sitting at the office. They robbed and threatened everyone, who bought schedule papers," said another source.
The Wasa sold 28 schedules for Tk 2,000 each in 45 days but received only four bids.
Officials of a Chinese firm tried to submit the bid on June 15. But as the four-member Chinese delegation arrived near Bangladesh Secretariat, hoodlums waylaid their vehicle and snatched away their tender documents.
A sub-inspector of Motijheel Police Station was suspended as he refused to accept complaint in this regard.
Asked, Wasa Managing Director ANH Akhter Hossain told The Daily Star last night that "for some unavoidable reasons, the tender bid was cancelled but we'll discuss the issue at a meeting on Tuesday."
The Wasa MD, however, declined to comment on involvement of any influential quarters behind the tender bid cancellation.
The project, estimated to cost about Tk 35 crore, will be set up in either Mirpur section- 10 or Uttara section- 6 on a Wasa plot. The Wasa will select the position soon after they receive test reports on quality of underground water of the places.