Key tender designed to bar Indian firms: Niti member

NEW DELHI: Top scientist and Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat raised questions and sought to put on hold the tender for the government’s strategic Rs 1,072 crore Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands (KLI) optic fibre project, saying that the tender document has been “deliberately designed to bar Indian companies from participating” which could compromise the security, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of the project.

Saraswat, former DRDO chief, expressed reservations over the tender — which has also been challenged in Delhi high court by lobby group Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) — through a communication sent to the telecom ministry in April, top sources told TOI.