Chennai: Residents of ward 155 in Valasaravakkam zone of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) are seeking greater transparency in the tendering of works at Amma Unavagams after an identical bidding pattern was noticed in three separate tenders floated by GCC.
The three tenders — 2026_CoC_690495_1, 2026_CoC_690504_1 and 2026_CoC_690434_1 — relate to improvement works at Amma Unavagams in Bajanai Koil Street, Thirumalai Nagar VOC Street and Bharathi Salai respectively. All three were published on August 3 and closed on August 18. The tender documents show that the works were invited as percentage-rate contracts, under which bidders quote a single percentage above or below the estimated value.
According to the financial documents examined by residents, multiple bidders in each of the three tenders quoted exactly 14.99 per cent below the estimated rate, producing identical quoted amounts within the respective tender.
While an identical percentage by itself does not establish collusion or manipulation, residents say the recurrence of precisely the same quote across three separate tenders warrants closer scrutiny by the Corporation.
The questions they want answered include whether the bidders involved in the three tenders are the same, whether there are common addresses, telephone numbers, email IDs, GST or registration details, or other links between the participating firms, and whether similar bidding patterns have occurred in their earlier GCC tenders.
The tender records show considerable overlap among bidders. For instance, Capital Enterprises, S. Murugan, GRS Construction and Saikrish Enterprises appear among the participants in the ward 155 tenders. Publicly indexed tender data also shows Capital Enterprises participating in all three of the identified ward 155 tenders.
For residents, the issue goes beyond the relatively small value of individual Amma Unavagam works.
“We have carried out a detailed look into the tender details. We thought it was the problem of ward 155 alone. But we have identical quotations in the other wards, including 156 as well. These are public funds being spent on facilities used by ordinary people. If the same contractors repeatedly participate and identical bids keep appearing, the Corporation should explain whether this is simply coincidence or whether there is any common link between the bidders,” a resident said on condition of anonymity.
The works themselves are relatively modest — the estimated value of the three tenders is around Rs. 3.95 lakh, Rs. 2.63 lakh and Rs. 3.95 lakh, respectively — but residents argue that the integrity of the procurement process cannot be measured only by the value of an individual contract.
They have also called for the Corporation to examine bidder participation and financial bid patterns across other wards to determine whether similar clusters of identical quotations exist in other zones.
The Corporation’s e-procurement records contain the bid-opening summaries, technical evaluation reports, financial evaluation documents and bill of quantities (BOQs), which could help establish whether the pattern is isolated or part of a wider trend.
The publicly indexed records confirm that these were open tenders for improvement works at Amma Unavagams in ward 155, said the residents.
Residents say they are not alleging that the tenders were fixed, but want the GCC to explain the repeated identical quotations and disclose whether any commonality exists among the bidders.
With Chennai having about 200 wards and the Corporation awarding thousands of small-value civil works every year, residents believe a systematic analysis of bid histories could determine whether the ward 155 pattern is an isolated occurrence or whether similar bidding behaviour has been repeated elsewhere.
Meanwhile, local GCC officials said all of them were open tenders and they were called by the tenders department of the Corporation. Only the tenders department can clarify why identical quotations are approved in the bidding process.
The ward-level officials know about the L1 contractors only after a work order has been issued by the headquarters, said a ward-level official.
Officials from the tenders department of GCC were unavailable for response.
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