In a rush to put Humboldt penguins on public display before the civic polls, the Shiv Sena-led BMC ignored serious non-compliance of tender conditions for the ambitious project, finds mid-day
The remaining seven Humboldt penguins at the Byculla zoo
In a rush to put Humboldt penguins on public display before the civic polls, the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ignored serious non-compliance of tender conditions for the ambitious project. Papers accessed by mid-day revealed that the contractor didn’t submit several crucial documents (on the basis of which a firm bags the contract in the first place), and the ‘lenient’ civic body allowed it to start work merely on ‘verbal’ assurance.
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The Highway Construction Company (HCC) faked memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with three agencies based in Uttar Pradesh that it had claimed to have hired for various works related to the project — Alpha Constructions for civil work, Aaryan Infratech for mechanical and electrical work, and Prakriti Nursery for landscaping work.
However, after getting the contract, the firm appointed some other agencies for the works, while continuing to show the original ones on paper, which is a violation of the Post Qualification Condition.
This has raised serious concern over the quality of work done, as there is no record of these companies and whether they have experience in civil, mechanical and electrical, and landscaping work related to enclosures.
Violations galore
A senior civic official from the Building Maintenance (BM) department said, “Even after several reminders, they failed to explain the absence of the original firms. We have sent them notice over the issue (on August 11).” In the last three months, the department has sent nine letters to the contractor.
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The BMC had brought eight penguins to the Byculla Zoo from Seoul’s Coex Aquarium on July 26. T he project kicked up a controversy after a female Humboldt penguin aged 1.5 years died in Byculla zoo due to a bacterial infection.
It has come to light that in addition to faking the MoUs, the contractor has violated rules at every level — from presenting a fake representative of Sivat Services Inc (a US-based expert) and appointing inexperienced staff, to not executing the work as per contract and delaying in purchase of special glass for exhibits.
Split wide open
A report submitted before the state Lokayukta by the zoo director states that on March 22 the BMC gave a work order to HCC for the construction of quarantine enclosures, exhibits and maintenance of penguins along with an aquarium at a total cost of Rs 45 crore.
HCC had claimed that it has a joint venture with US-based Sivat and Australian agency Oceanis International Private Limited — experts on penguin enclosures — for the next five years. However, all of this turned out to be false.
A senior civic official said, “On July 14, when Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray visited the zoo, the company introduced one Mr Levi as a representative of Sivat. Later, when we asked for Levi’s qualification and work experience details along with the work permit, they failed to produce any papers.”
“The contractor had said Sivat was the lead partner with 74% share. However, the US firm is not involved in the project,” he added.
Opposition up in arms
Opposition leader in the BMC Pravin Chheda, who has filed a complaint against the civic body and the zoo authority before Lokayukta Justice (retired) ML Tahaliyani, has alleged numerous irregularities in the penguin project.
Read Story: Mumbai: Dead Humboldt penguin haunts Byculla Zoo
“The BMC has fooled everyone in this project, as the contractor got a free hand to work despite not submitting several crucial documents,” he alleged.
“On paper, there were three agencies for the work on the penguin exhibits and quarantine enclosures, but now it turns out all that was a lie. The BMC was ignoring all the lapses, allowing the company to work. All it cared about was the upcoming elections, as there is a special interest of the ruling party in it.”
The official version
Deputy chief engineer (city) of the BM department, RG Sharma said, “I will have to check all the papers since the lower rank officials were handling the issue. We have issued notices to the contractor for non-compliance. Till now, no payment has been done for any work; in fact, we have fined the contractor.”
Calls and messages sent to HCC went unanswered.
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