Kathmandu, January 16:

Hooligans today allegedly barred around 20 ‘A’ class contractors from registering their bids for a tender invited by the Upper Tama Koshi Hydroelectric Project to construct a 30-km access road in Dolakha.

Only three to four contractors could register their bids in each package out of the total three packages till the deadline of 11 am at the project’s registration office in Nagpokhari. The tender was invited for the construction of the access road for the 309-megawatt project. The construction work of six km of the road was handed over to a group last year, but nothing has been done yet.

The hooligans, allegedly hired by a few contractors, also beat up some contractors, the latter said. They said the concerned officials did not listen to them when they complained about the hooliganism.

“The government and the people will be the ultimate sufferers as the project will cost the nation more than the total estimated cost,” said a contractor on condition of anonymity. “Instead of promoting fair competition, the government is promoting an unhealthy trend, which eventually will harm the nation,” the contractor said.

According to another contractor, contractors have bid 14 per cent more than the estimated cost of the project.

Sarad Kumar Gauchan, the general secretary of the Federation of Contractors’ Association Nepal (FCAN), denied the contactors’ claims and said there was a small dispute in the beginning, but was later sorted out. “We can never think of hurting our member contractors by denying them the right to bid for the tender,” he said.

Mrigendra Bahadur Shrestha, planning chief at the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), said the registration was open in two places — one at Nagpokhari and another at the NEA head office at Ratnapark. “The contractors could have registered in the NEA office if there was any difficulty at Nagpokhari,” he said. He said he had no more information of the alleged incident.