If the civic administration hands over the project to the bidder chosen by the standing committee, then the total cost will increase by Rs 271 crore
The BMC administration plans to set up a waste-to-energy plat at the Deonar dumping ground. File pic
After getting delayed by almost six years, the waste-to-energy-plant project at the Deonar dumping ground has once again hit a roadblock — this time because of a clash between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration and corporators over assigning the project contract. If the civic body hands over the project to the bidder chosen by the standing committee, then the total cost will increase by Rs 271 crore, which is 30 per cent more than the lowest bid.
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As per the proposal tabled in the standing committee on January 30, the administration has proposed to give the contract to the lowest bidder — M/s Chennai MSW company for a cost of R1,020 crore. The cost includes infrastructure and expenses involved in the 15-year lifespan of the plant. The second-lowest bidder — Suez project — has pitched a cost of R1,291 crore. Standing Committee chairman, Yashwant Jadhav, had not taken up the matter for hearing in the last three meetings, but he finally discussed it on Tuesday, just four days prior to the next high court hearing on February 22.
Vishakha Raut, leader of the House and Shiv Sena corporator, said that the tendering process was quite suspicious. "The administration failed to follow the procedure while opening the C packet, which discloses the cost of the project. While the second-lowest bidder, M/S Suez project, mentioned the price, the pocket of M/S Chennai MSW (lowest bidder) was empty. Later, when a BMC official asked the Chennai company to fill the cost, they put in a figure R271 crore less than that of Suez company," alleged Raut. She demanded that the project be given to the second-lowest bidder, as the whole procedure was carried out in a suspicious manner.
Additional Commissioner of the BMC, P Velarasu, told the committee members that though zero was written in the cost column, the required details were available in the excel sheet provided by the Chennai company.
He further said that the administration had taken oral advice from BMC's legal department and had asked them to fill in the details in the cost column later. Velarasu further requested the committee to sanction the Chennai company for the project.
But corporators discussed the matter for over one-and-a-half hours and backed Raut's decision. Jadhav told the administration that only a few days were left for the court hearing and the civic body would not be able to complete the re-tendering process within that time. He further ordered the administration to give the contract to the second-lowest bidder — Suez project.
One of the officials from the administration told mid-day that while the standing committee had the power to accept or reject the proposal and could also give orders on handing over the project to a different bidder, it was up to the administration to obey it or not.
Rs 1,020cr
Cost quoted by M/s Chennai MSW
Rs 1,291cr
Cost quoted by Suez project
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