Tags:
Journalism of Courage
BMC defers contract for lack of bidders, high tipping fee
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday decided to defer for now the awarding of contracts for their ambitious plan to convert the Deonar dumping ground partially into a green belt and the rest into a sanitary landfill site. The Rs 4,560-crore proposal had been earlier put before the standing committee for approval. On Friday, the Sena and BJP, the ruling parties in the civic body, were not convinced by the proposal and eventually it was postponed.
The party alleged there were not enough competitors. Questions were also raised as to why the civic body should pay Rs 625 per metric tonne garbage to be disposed of and the processed tipping fee. Though the civic body explained that the tipping fee annually for disposing of and processing 2,000 metric tonne of garbage was a mere Rs 44 crore annually, it did not satisfy the ruling party members.
Despite Sena-BJP’s doubts, the opposition was in favour of the proposal. After a heated debate, the administration challenged the standing committee that if the tipping fee for Kanjurmarg dumping ground was less than that for Deonar dumping ground, it would ensure the same was applied to Deonar.
