NEW DELHI: According to a Cobrapost investigation , the Madhya Pradesh government bypassed many rules to award a land re-development project in Bhopal to a particular company.In its investigation, Cobrapost has cited many government documents and RTI queries that raise serious question on the state government, especially chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan 's office in awarding the contract worth Rs 7,000 crore.The project in question is the redensification of 15 acres of land in South TT Nagar, one of the upscale localities in the heart of Bhopal. The state government invited bids for the project in May, 2007 and 29 companies submitted tenders for the same. Of these, 17 companies were shortlisted, including Oriental Structural Engineers, DLF Limited, Larsen & Tubro, Reliance Engineering, Reliance Energy, Unitech Limited, Gammon India Ltd. and Parsvanath Developers.The contract was promply awarded to Gammon India Ltd. Though the reason given was that other companies were not able to submit their bids in time, investigations revealed that the whole process was conducted in a partisan manner to benefit the company, and lease deeds were signed without holding Gammon India accountable. Documents also revealed that the state government cut the circle rates for this particular project almost by half while making the prime land freehold again.Reliance Energy, one of the successful bidders in the first round, had sought a month's time to place its final bid but Cobrapost investigations claim that the Madhya Pradesh Housing Board ignored the request and awarded the contract to Gammon India Ltd after three months. The proposal was sent to the cabinet, headed by the chief minister himself, and was approved promptly. The agreement was signed on March 29, 2008, by Gammon India Ltd.Gammon informed the Madhya Pradesh government in April that it has formed a Special Purpose Company (SPC) named Deepmala Infrastructure Private Limited (DIPL) for the project. The investigation, however, reveals that the company was started by two individuals with Rs 1 lakh six months before the bidding process actually began. Gammon India later bought 51 per cent stake in it and claimed it to be their SPC. Cobrapost claims that things moved at a fast pace with the chief minister's office handling the affairs directly. Officials worked overtime to quickly clear all the hurdles; clearances given as part of CMO's '100 Day Action Plan'. Cobrapost also claims that the agreement done with Gammon India, its SPC and the state govenrment was not notarized, hence did not have any legal standing in the courts of law.No questions were asked about the source of funds of the company, nor about how the SPC (which was started with Rs 1 lakh) will pay the lease rent of Rs 338 crore within a year, making the entire deal a murky affair.