The Uttar Pradesh government has extended the deadline for submission of e-bids for the ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) for the appointment of a consultant who will work out a roadmap for making UP a one trillion dollar economy in the next five years. The e-bids may now be submitted up to May 24. The technical bids will be opened on May 25.
This is the third time the deadline has been extended for the appointment of a consultant. The Yogi Adityanath government had floated global bids to invite proposals for the appointment of the consultant on March 15 last after the BJP won the assembly elections in the state for the second time in a row.
The assembly election results were announced on March 10. The bids were to be submitted by April 14 then. The deadline was later extended to April 29 and now to May 24. The government explained that over 170 queries were raised at the pre-bid conference following which the government felt that it needed some follow-up measures.
Companies gave some suggestions following which the state government decided to make necessary corrections. The revised documents will be uploaded soon.
Official sources said that the government was forced to extend the deadline because of the fault lines which emerged during discussions with the different consultants/companies. Some of the big names were reluctant to participate in the bid. The government has now made amendments in the terms and conditions for the bidders.
UP’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) needs a four to five times push to reach the target of a one trillion dollar economy and it’s an uphill task under the existing institutional framework, forcing top consultants to stay away from the e-bidding.
The government dossiers claim that the GSDP has already touched Rs 15.80 lakh crore (USD 230 billion) with a rich growth rate of 7 per cent over the previous year.
It will be a challenging task to boost up the size of the GSDP by nearly five times to reach the target of one trillion dollars in five years (2022-27), discounting the dollar fluctuations and global trends.
The Directorate of Economics and Statistics of UP government, in its advance estimates, has indicated that the GSDP for 2021-2022 remained at about Rs 19.10 lakh crore.
The RFP admits that it is a Herculean task that demands some giant steps to be taken by the state government to move forward. “It needs some well-thought-out and long-term strategies on a sustained basis. It will also require organisational restructuring, focused policies and rules for more effective governance, faster decision-making process, and improved accountability,” according to the RFP.
