Mumbai: BMC gives in to road contractors’ demands

Potholes at Goregaon East, earlier this month. Pic/Anurag Ahire

The civic body will no longer insist on undertakings and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) from the ready mix concrete (RMC) plant owners and mastic asphalt providers supplying materials to the contractors, who bid for road contracts worth Rs 1,100 crore. The MNS had made the demand for this, and the civic body said it was doing so after holding two pre-bid meetings with interested contractors.

The MNS had alleged that the tenders by the Road Department are drafted in such a way that there is a possibility of backdoor entry for barred contractors of the 2016 road scam. A controversy over road contracts broke out last month, when the tenders were issued after almost a year-and-a-half, but were scrapped and reissued in early October. There were various changes in the condition of the new tenders, one of which was reintroduction of the 80:20 payment.

There was another revision - the registered irrevocable undertaking-cum-declaration-cum Indemnity Bond, in prescribed format with registered RMC plant and asphalt plant owners who have arrangement for mastic asphalt production regarding supply of materials as per the BMC specification. Machinery is to be submitted for fulfilling the documentation. This has now been changed mainly for the CC road contracts where the quantity is less than 10 per cent.

The MNS had questioned if the quantity of mastic or asphalt used during construction is hardly 2 per cent for CC roads, then why such insistence. This would only lead to cartelisation, it had said. On similar lines, the civic body has waived off the mandatory condition of undertaking and MoUs with the plant owners. In cases where the quantity of mastic or asphalt to be used is less than 10 per cent, it has been waived off. But, wherever it is more than that, the BMC has retained the condition and insisted on undertakings to keep a check on the quality of material.

Deputy Municipal Corporation of Infrastructure and Chief Engineer of Road Department R Talkar said, "As the demands were placed by the contractors in the pre-bid meetings, we have decided to waive off the condition. This will help more competition and more contractors can bid for the road works."

The MNS had also alleged that four of the eight registered plant owners are those against whom there was a FIR/debarred by the BMC in the 2016 road scam. The party leaders had insisted that the undertakings of these four should strictly not be allowed. However, there is no confirmation by the civic officials on this demand.

September
Month this year that controversy erupted over road tenders