Posers raised over deletion of 'Palace' spruce-up tender notice
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, August 13 2025: With the tender notice for the renovation of Langthabal Palace uploaded on manipurtenders.govt.in deleted few hours after its upload, posers have been raised over possible violations of standard procedures.

The deletion has deepened suspicion on whether norms of the State Finance Department and guidelines of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and Work Procurement Manual have been flouted by the executive engineer of the Highways South Division, PWD Manipur.

According to reports received, the historic Langthabal Palace or referred to as old palace, situated within the Manipur University campus and previously occupied by an Assam Rifles unit before their recent relocation, is set to be renovated under the 'Challenge Based Destination Development' sub-scheme of the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 .

The project is to be implemented by Highways South Division, PWD Manipur.

Of the various works planned, Rs 12,64,34,000 have been allocated for Destination Management Intervention and Rs 5,54,29,000 for Green Tourism/Sustainability Intervention, with the tender notice for the project announced on manipurtenders.govt.in in on Tuesday morning.

For a tender to be listed, the executive engineer (EE) must first forward the proposal to the superintending engineer (SE), after which it is routed to the additional chief engineer and then to the chief engineer.

From there, it proceeds to the Superintending Survey of Works (SSW), and subsequently to the section officer (SO) through the Survey of Works (SW).

Once the project receives approval, the file is sent back from the SO to the SW, then to the SSW, and finally to the chief engineer.

As and when the chief engineer gives approval to technical sanction and Notice Inviting Tender (NIT), the file is returned to the EE for uploading on manipurtenders.govt.in .

It is strongly suspected that the tender notice for the renovation of Langthabal Palace, uploaded on the portal on Tuesday morning, was removed later in the evening due to the absence of both technical sanction and NIT approval.

When this daily contacted the superintending engineer-III, additional CE-II, to verify the matter, the official stated that he had no knowledge of the tender.

Attempts to reach the chief engineer were unsuccessful as his phone was in unreachable mode and reportedly out of station.

The executive engineer also did not respond to multiple calls, with access to his residence denied as the gate was locked from inside.

While it is understandable that calls may go unanswered due to the prevailing crisis in the state, even text messages sent to the officials received no reply.

Meanwhile, strong suspicions have emerged, with people questioning whether such irregularities are rampant taking undue advantage of President's Rule in the state.

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