September 4: The tender evaluation process of Kakarbhitta-Inaruwa section of the contentious East-West Railway has been halted due to technical problems in downloading the documents registered through electronic bidding method.

The concerned authorities are unable to evaluate the documents since the last three weeks.

Issuing a notice on August 26, the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) said that the procurement process has been halted because of their failure to download the documents since last month.

Coincidently, Patan High Court had ordered the PPMO to move ahead with the tender process the same day.

The Department of Railways was preparing to evaluate 120 proposals for the construction of the 106-kilometer long track-bed along the section. But the process has remained on hold ever since the problem surfaced.

Director General of the Department of Railways, Balaram Mishra, informed that although they were preparing to evaluate the proposals after the high court’s ruling, they were unable to do so due to the problem in downloading the documents.

Spokesperson of PPMO Sushil Dhakal says they are making efforts to resolve the problem but did not specify the exact time they will be able to sort out the issue.

However, the inordinate delay has cast doubts about the intention of the concerned government bodies.

The government has been accused of trying to award the contract worth Rs 28 billion to selected contractors.