For eastern suburbs,it’ll be another muddy monsoon

Since June 2012,no new contract has been awarded to restructure and resurface roads in the eastern suburbs. Also,30 per cent of major and minor road repairs taken up in 2011 are pending.

BMC said a legal dispute was delaying the re-tendering. In March,it awarded contracts worth Rs 85 crore to concretise 24 roads and contracts worth Rs 168 crore to asphalt 106 roads in the eastern suburbs.

J Kumar Infraprojects bid the lowest,followed by Mahavir Roads and Infrastructure Limited,a contractor barred for allegedly submitting fake bills and using poor quality paver blocks in L ward.

Mahavir moved Bombay High Court,which ruled in its favour and BMC was asked on May 6 to not award contracts to J Kumar Infraprojects.

“The civic administration has neither sought new bids for the contract,nor has it awarded the tender to the second-lowest bidder. We cannot be blamed for the indecisiveness,” said standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale,adjourning the standing committee meeting.

“The lowest bidder did not fulfil the criteria and fudged details. Yet the administration considered it while disallowing Mahavir,” said committee member and Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh.

Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta said,“We will not negotiate with the second-lowest bidder. The proposal for re-tendering has been submitted to the municipal commissioner. We do not want to award the tender now as till October no new work can be carried out anyway. We can easily complete the re-tendering process before October.”

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