UP: Big consultants avoid Yogi’s a trillion economy dream; state govt extends deadline for third time

The Yogi Government’s dream of making Uttar Pradesh’s one trillion economy in the next five years has hit a roadblock yet again as it extended the deadline for the submission of e-bids for the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the appointment of a consultant who would work out a roadmap for this ambitious scheme.

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 government had floated global bids to invite proposals for the appointment of the consultant on March 15, 2022, after the BJP won the assembly elections for the second time in a row. The results were declared on March 10.

The bids were to be submitted by April 14 then. The deadline was later extended to April 29 and now again 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 has decided to make necessary corrections. The revised documents will be uploaded soon.

Insiders in the Planning Department said that the government was forced to extend the deadline because of the fault lines that have emerged during discussions with the companies. Some of the big names of this trade have shown their reluctance in participating in this bid. “To please those big players the government has decided to extend the deadline and incorporate some clause that will match their interest,” the source said.

He said the UP’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) needs a four to five-time push to reach the target of a one trillion economy but is not feasible in the present scenario, and therefore, big names in the trade are staying away from e-bidding.

The government dossiers claim that the GSDP has already touched ₹15.80 lakh crore (US dollar230 billion) with a rich growth rate of 7 per cent over the previous year. ‘It would be a challenging task to boost up the size of the GSDP by nearly five times to reach the target of One Trillion-Dollar in five years (2022-27), discounting for the dollar fluctuations and global trends. It enables and would require sustained and aggressive efforts at the state level,” it said.

The Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the UP government, in its advance estimates, has indicated the GSDP for 2021-2022 remained at about Rs. 19.10 lakh crore.

The Request For Proposal (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. This would also require organisational restructuring, focused policies and rules for more effective governance, faster decision-making process, and improved accountability,” reads the RFP.