Governance overhaul or political agenda? TVK govt goes on rollback-review spree for DMK-era projects

June 26, 2026 Headlinesnews

Citing administrative lapses and the need for more transparent bidding processes, government officials said the exercise was part of the TVK-led government’s push to “ensure transparency and anti-corruption reforms” even at the risk of short-term disruptions to development works.

But some political analysts view this large-scale review or cancellation of tenders and projects politically motivated rather than a concrete intervention to prevent corruption.

“These decisions are politically motivated since they have not taken any action against those involved in malpractices. If they think the tenders were allotted illegally, some form of judicial action must have been made,” political analyst Arun Kumar told ThePrint. “If the government truly cares about the ongoing corruption, the officials or the workers responsible should be suspended. There is only minor action, and they are building a narrative to show that TVK is giving a corruption-free government.”

Political analyst Ramu Manivannan said the exercise reflected the bitter rivalry between the TVK and DMK, which suffered a shock defeat in the Assembly elections. It won just 59 seats in the 234-member Assembly, while the TVK emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats, ending the 60-year duopoly of the DMK and AIADMK.

“The contest between the two parties goes far beyond ordinary political competition. It is increasingly reflected in the scrutiny of tenders, projects and government decisions,” said Manivannan. “The TVK may frame this as an effort to ensure transparency and expose alleged corruption within the DMK, but the intensity of this confrontation suggests it is likely to continue until the final day of the TVK government’s term.”

DMK leaders also argue that such actions reflect political vendetta rather than genuine reform.

Among the latest projects under scrutiny is a tender for the procurement of 500 electric buses for Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, floated during the DMK’s tenure. The Transport department has decided to revisit this tender too.

On Friday, tenders worth Rs 284 crore for footway project work in Chennai were cancelled, along with another tender to privatise solid waste management services in 12 municipal corporations.

Also Read: Vijay govt halts Rs 2,000-crore housing project in Chennai after environment clearance revoked

Temple-funded projects

Last week, the TVK government also cancelled administrative sanctions for 46 temple-funded commercial projects worth Rs 246 crore, approved during the DMK era.

They included 29 marriage halls and 17 commercial complexes, such as multi-level car parking and similar revenue-generating assets on temple lands. None of the projects had reached the stage of execution.

Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister S. Ramesh said in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the previous DMK government had prioritised the commercialisation of temple assets for revenue generation over providing basic amenities to devotees.

According to him, the TVK government has “neither the necessity nor the intention to use temple funds for commercial purposes at any time”, redirecting resources instead toward genuine temple welfare and devotee facilities.

Moreover, he emphasised that many of these projects were already mired in legal challenges and stay orders.

The government has already cancelled over 100 short-term tenders, put a few infrastructure initiatives on hold, and ordered a fresh scrutiny of electricity board projects.

Between 13 and 22 May, the government withdrew numerous short-term tenders floated in the final days of the previous administration across departments, including Rural Development, Public Works (PWD), Electricity (TNEB/TANGEDCO), Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Transport, and Municipal Administration.

Officials cited “administrative reasons” and alleged procedural lapses for withdrawing the tenders.

From placing tenders worth over Rs 5,000 crore under review at TNEB following the detection of alleged procedural violations and reviewing the smart meters project to considering scrapping the Rs 2,000-crore elevated corridor project on the Thiruvanmiyur-Uthandi stretch of the East Coast Road, officials say the government is aiming to reduce irregularities in awarding tenders.

Meanwhile, projects such as the Rs 27,400-crore Parandur Greenfield Airport have also been cancelled, even as the government is yet to announce its position on the Kattupalli Port expansion and Melma SIPCOT Industrial Park, all of which Vijay had publicly opposed.

On the Parandur airport, TVK Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar maintained that the government would not destroy agricultural land and the party had opposed the project since it was proposed. The government is currently considering an alternative site for a second airport in Chennai.

TVK cancels own tenders too

Officials said the new government was focusing on discouraging short-term tenders. The cancelled PWD tenders, floated in the narrow window between 13 May and 22 May, are among those flagged for having unusually short bidding periods and limited contractor participation, which officials say violated standard procurement norms.

A senior PWD department official said the standard norm is to allow at least 15 days for submission of bids, but since this system was not followed, the short-term tenders had been cancelled. “It is not a political move but an attempt at ensuring all the norms are followed,” said the official.

Officials said departments have been directed to strictly follow tendering norms to ensure wider bidder participation, greater transparency, and compliance with financial rules.

The move stems from a new policy by the government to discourage short-duration tenders, except in unavoidable emergencies, and enforce standard procedures with wider bidder participation.

“We are not trying to engage in politics by cancelling or reviewing any tenders, but to ensure efficiency in all the projects. It is a routine procedure,” J. Radhakrishnan, chairman and managing director of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, told ThePrint.

“For example, in the case of smart meters, even the previous government wanted to understand whether they are required or not. While they are installed in government buildings, we need to understand if they are required in private spaces too. These reviews are just to ensure an efficient system in the department.”

Tenders across departments

The TVK government is reviewing procedures across departments.

In the Rural Development Department, a Rs 16.83 lakh tender floated in Kancheepuram district on 19 May for the construction of a 30,000-litre overhead water tank was withdrawn after it gave prospective bidders an unprecedentedly tight six-hour window between a.m. and 3 p.m. to submit bids.

Following an online backlash, the tender notification was cancelled, citing administrative reasons.

Electricity Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar has placed tenders worth over Rs 5,000 crore under review in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board after detecting several irregularities in awarding the short-term tenders, such as rushed approval and higher costs, as part of a wider effort to identify unnecessary expenditure and plug leakages.

The department is also reviewing smart meters for billing and other contracts inherited from the prior administration.

“The reviews are being made at multiple levels in terms of the floating of tenders, procurement and logistics. The idea is not to stop any tenders but to ensure that a transparent procedure is followed,” a senior TNEB official told ThePrint.

Smart meters were to be installed across the state’s 12 distribution regions, but the project is being reconsidered. One of the previous tenders was cancelled earlier due to high costs and administrative issues. A previous bid was scrapped after Adani Energy Solutions Ltd quoted a price considered too high for one of the four packages.

Moreover, the CBI has also registered a fresh FIR on 6 June into the alleged Rs 397-crore transformer procurement scam, pertaining to tenders floated between 2021 and 2023 for the supply of distribution transformers, which allegedly caused a loss of about Rs 397 crore to the state.

The TVK government suspended a senior TANGEDCO official, citing irregularities in tender approvals, after his name surfaced in the transformer procurement scam currently under CBI probe.

Nirmal Kumar had earlier said that the government was looking at introducing a new policy for the estimation of tenders to avoid unnecessary expenditure. Meanwhile, officials from the Electricity Department also said that the government does not want to stop any tenders but was reviewing costs and practices that provided opportunities for big commissions.

In the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), the TVK administration has cancelled tenders for excavator rentals worth nearly Rs 3 crore that were offered to bidders in less than 24 hours, following allegations of favouritism and inflated pricing. GCC also suspended an executive engineer in its Perungudi zone following allegations of irregularities in the process.

On 12 May, the zone issued six limited tenders each for hiring dozers at Rs 48.33 lakh each and excavators at Rs 49.56 lakh each for 105 days at the Perungudi dumpyard, under the Greater Chennai Corporation.

The then Corporation Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran said that the engineer had acted out of urgency and that officials were later informed not to float short-term tenders.

Meanwhile, Chennai Mayor R. Priya said that she has not been consulted regarding any of these tender cancellations, and decisions were being made at the commissioner level.

Tamil Nadu-based anti-corruption organisation Arappor Iyakkam raised concerns about processes, highlighting the unusually short one-day window for bidders, rental rates higher than market prices, and the repeated use of limited tenders, which it said suggested possible pre-fixed contracts and a lack of transparency.

GCC took action in this regard and suspended the engineer, but did not disclose detailed reasons.

Arappor Iyakkam had raised allegations of corruption and illegal tender awards across many departments.

“In the previous government, there was rampant misuse of the tender laws by floating a lot of limited tenders. It was not an open tender and allowed only a limited number of bidders. Such discrepancies were noted and highlighted to the previous government as well,” Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of Arappor Iyakkam, told ThePrint.

“However, we did not see any concrete action being taken. The TVK government has taken the issues into account and taken action. We expect the government to further improve the procedure and make it transparent by making it an end-to-end e-tender process,” Venkatesan added.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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