BRS MLA Flags Irregularities in Telangana's HAM Roads Tender Process

Hyderabad: A senior BRS legislator has raised serious concerns about procurement practices in Telangana's highways scheme, pointing to substantial cost inflation and procedural lapses in major infrastructure projects.

T. Harish Rao contended that the HAM roads initiative has been marked by systematic cost escalation across the Panchayat Raj and Roads and Buildings departments. Speaking with media representatives, the MLA noted that tenders were granted at rates ranging from 22 to 25 percent higher than the original project estimates.

The scale of the financial discrepancy is substantial. Under the Roads and Buildings department, project valuations surged from ₹11,000 crore to approximately ₹15,000 crore. In the Panchayat Raj sector, costs climbed from ₹6,000 crore to roughly ₹8,000 crore.

Harish Rao characterized the situation as indicative of inadequate transparency in the contract award mechanism. He called for the immediate revocation of existing tenders and demanded that fresh bidding be conducted to restore procedural integrity.

The legislator also highlighted concerns regarding government-backed loan guarantees extended to contractors and questioned the administration's approach to mobilisation advances. He suggested that such arrangements may have created conditions conducive to operational irregularities.

The BRS leader further alleged that preferential treatment shaped contract distribution patterns, with select contractors appearing to benefit from inflated cost assessments. He additionally raised questions about service extensions granted to retired officials, asserting that such extensions had facilitated questionable departmental practices.

Harish Rao stressed the necessity for a comprehensive examination of the roads initiative and urged the administration to prioritize transparency and accountability mechanisms in public infrastructure delivery.