E-tender process for auction of 11 Chandigarh housing board units starts

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Housing Board on Wednesday started e-tender process for auction of 11 residential units on leasehold basis in different parts of the city.

Residents can submit their bids till June 30 and ebids will be opened on July 1. The bidders will have to submit earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 2 lakh online for each residential unit through e-tendering portal.

A senior CHB official said that on June 8, they will start e-tendering process of 150 commercial properties. The process of auction of freehold residential units is already going on, he added.

The CHB has prepared a list of 270 properties, including 11 residential (leasehold), 109 residential (freehold) and 150 commercial (leasehold), for sale. The CHB has started with auction of freehold residential units and now leasehold residential units.

To get a good response, the CHB had reduced the reserve price of the properties by 10%. Not even a single bidder expressed interest in the auction of CHB properties held in 2019 as the reserve price was too high for both residential and commercial properties.

This time, the CHB had decided to replace the e-auction process of selling properties with the e-tender process. In e-auction, the earnest money deposit (EMD) for participation cannot be paid online. The bidder deposits the same in the CHB account and submits a proof. The payment is confirmed by the CHB officers before allowing the bidder to participate in the e-auction process. Hence, number of bidders for particular property and their identity is not fully confidential.

However, in e-tender, EMD can be paid online and there is no need of any approval and hence there is complete secrecy about the number of bidders and their identity.