Lucknow: The contract to supply 15 lakh laptops to the Uttar Pradesh government has been awarded by the state authorities to Hewlett Packard India.
One of the biggest such contracts ever, the state cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday awarded the Rs 2858.70 crore contract to supply 15 lakh units of laptops, to HP India, which quoted the lowest price at Rs 19,058 per laptop inclusive of taxes and duty.
The UP Electronics Corporation, MD, Prabhat Mittal who managed the bidding process said that while HP India quoted the lowest rates, HCL with its bid of Rs 21,883 was the second lowest.
The winning company has been mandated to supply 5 per cent of the total order within 60 days of signing the agreement, with an increased quantity being supplied every subsequent month. The company would complete the supply of 15 lakh laptops in seven months after the date of agreement.
Mittal said that the laptops would be delivered at the Tehsil block level in each district by the company and they were working towards starting distribution of laptops to students in a months time.
It was the Samajwadi Party's poll manifesto promise to give free laptops and tablets to all class 12 and class 10 pass outs respectively which was seen as the game changer in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in March last year.
The promise helped the Samajwadi Party ride to power on popular support by youths and Akhilesh Yadav become the Chief Minister on 15 March 2012.
Since then the large size of the order had forced the government to keep shifting the biding dates as IT companies expressed problems in supplying laptops in such large numbers.
The bidding process for supplying tablets to the UP government is still underway and government officials say that they were hopeful of finalising the contract by February end.
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