New work order on concretisation in three weeks: Chahal

In October,  the civic body had issued a show cause notice for termination to one of the five contractors — ‘M/s Roadway Solutions India Infra Limited’ (RSIIL) — who had been awarded the work to carry out concretisation of roads covering eight municipal wards in island city, giving them a period of 15 days to file a reply. Owing to the delay in the commencement of works, the civic body had previously levied a penalty of Rs 10 crore on this contractor, in May this year.

While the civic body had called for a hearing pertaining to the decision on termination last week, the contractor skipped the hearing. Amid the contractor’s absence, the civic roads department sent a proposal for contract termination on an ex parte basis, which the municipal commissioner approved Wednesday. Meanwhile, the RSIIL will also be imposed with a fine mounting over Rs 50 crores.

Makarand Narwekar, former BJP corporator from Colaba, whose complaint had prompted the BMC to take action against the contractor, told Express that while it is heartening to see that RSIIL’s contract has been terminated, the civic body must permanently blacklist the contractor from all departments across Maharashtra. He added, “The BMC should start recovering the penalty amount of Rs 52 crore from the contractor immediately. Furthermore, the BMC must file an FIR against the contractor and initiate a criminal investigation.”

Responding to questions, Chahal maintained that no FIR has been filed against the contractor yet.

Hours before the civic body announced its decision to terminate the contract, taking to social media (X), Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray had said, “Will he (Chahal) terminate the contractor for not doing the work?? or will the BMC MC be forced by the illegal CM to give a Diwali bonus to the CM’s contractor friend from the road mega scam?”