Mumbai civic body chief: Will get new road contractor for SoBo in 3 weeks

Corporators claimed that a host of issues are ailing road works in Mumbai. File pic

After terminating the contract for south Mumbai's road concretisation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to call for fresh tenders and choose a contractor within the next three weeks. While former corporators have welcomed the move, they have also demanded more actions against the corporator and in the tendering process.

The BMC had appointed the contractor for the concretisation of roads in south Mumbai on January 23 this year. However, no work has been started till today. BMC Commissioner I S Chahal said that orders were issued on Wednesday to terminate the contract. He added that a new contractor will be finalised within three weeks for the contract worth Rs 1,687 crore.

Show-cause notice served

When the contractor for south Mumbai roads failed to start the work, a show-cause notice was served to him by the BMC. "The contractor was also called for a hearing but he said he cannot make it and asked for more time. His written response to the show-cause notice was not satisfactory either. There was no clear justification on why he failed to start the work on time," a BMC official said.

Consequently, last week, the civic road department suggested terminating the contract and the civic commissioner passed the order for the same on Wednesday. "This contractor faces a Rs 52 crore fine for the delay in starting work. Meanwhile, there is no need to file an FIR against the contractor as we have already scrapped the contract," Chahal said.

The BMC has 2,050 km of city roads under its jurisdiction. It had appointed five contractors for the concretisation of 397 km of road across the city at a cost of Rs 6,050 crore. The work for south Mumbai's roads, however, did not begin for several months. Meanwhile, the concretisation of 270 km of road was started last year and is going on. Apart from the roads under construction, 990 km of roads are already concretised.

Corporators raise questions

Former BJP corporator from Colaba, Advocate Makrand Narvekar said, "It is heartening to see that the BMC finally acted upon my complaints and terminated the contract. An FIR needs to be filed against the contractor and an investigation must be initiated."

Former SP corporator Rais Shaikh claimed that the previous process of issuing tenders was faulty, which may have led to this situation. "The BMC has assured that there will be CCTV monitoring and a dashboard where citizens can observe the status of the project. But there is nothing like CCTV monitoring or a dashboard set up. The civic chief should also declare what kind of tendering process will be followed now as the previous one is not up to the mark," Shaikh said.

"We have been saying for 11 months that there is a scam in road works. Work in the suburbs has not started either. In some places, work has been abandoned after excavation. Mumbaikars have had to bear immense pain because of this," said Shiv Sena UBT's Aditya Thackeray. He demanded that the other four contractors should be blacklisted.

Jan 23
Day this year the contractor was appointed