28 September,2016 08:26 AM IST | | Ranjeet Jadhav
MMRDA will add a clause and ensure blacklisted companies are kept at bay; decision comes after FIRs were registered against contractors in road scam
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) seems to have learnt a lesson from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) mistake. After FIRs were registered against contractors in the road scam, (unlike BMC that did so), the MMRDA has decided not to allot tenders to companies that have been blacklisted by the government and semi-government agencies.
Still, in the past MMRDA had to face criticism for awarding a contract of one of the construction packages of the Dahisar-Andheri east metro, to a contractor against whom an FIR was registered in connection with the road scam.
'An eyewash'
"MMRDA should not have awarded the contract to a contractor against whom an FIR was registered in connection with the BMC road scam, as the investigation into the same is going on. But MMRDA went ahead and awarded the contract worth more than R300-crore to the company. Now bringing the clause of not giving a contract to the blacklisted contractors is nothing but an eyewash," said BJP leader and activist Vivekanand Gupta.
MMRDA tenders regarding various roads and construction related work which were invited recently, clearly have a clause which states, "The bidder shall not be blacklisted in any other government and semi-government organisation in past seven years." MMRDA had recently invited tenders for spending over R77 crore for widening and construction of the road from Shil Phata junction to Kalyan Phata junction and the new clause has been included in this tender. A senior MMRDA official said, "MMRDA's approach has always been clear and so the contracts are always awarded to the companies that have a clean image."
MMRDA authorities had justified their stand for awarding a metro-7 contract to a tainted contractor, saying the company was not blacklisted then. An official from MMRDA in the month of May had said, "Yes. We have given a contract to J Kumar for Metro 7. Interestingly, BMC awarded a contract to J Kumar (for bridge construction) and soon after, filed an FIR against it. We took the decision to appoint J Kumar after seeking opinion of our legal department."
