BMC's Standing committee chairman approves all proposals in one go, citing four-month delay
Prabhakar Shinde of BJP raised objection against the clearance saying that the proposals were sent to committee members just one day prior. File pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) approved about 15 proposals of various roads repair works in just five minutes on Tuesday. The 15 proposals which were presented on Tuesday were worth Rs 370 crore - an amount about 6 to 8 per cent more than the initial estimation. Generally, the bidding amount is bellow 10 to 20 per cent of the estimation.
mid-day on January 14 had reported about how the road repair works were delayed owing to the new 60/40 scheme.
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While corporators blamed the administration several times over the rates and delay of the projects, on Tuesday, the proposals were approved within five minutes without any discussion. Standing committee member Prabhakar Shinde of BJP raised objection against the clearance saying that the proposals were sent to committee members just one day prior and that they didn't get time to analyse it. However, committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav cleared all the proposals at one go by citing the delay in work.
The 15 proposals mainly included works of converting roads in cement concrete and construction of side strips in western suburbs from Dahisar to Andheri. There were also three proposals for Bhandup, Kurla and Ghatkopar. The cost escalated due to the condition of holding 40 per cent of the contractor's amount by releasing it phase-wise till the completion of the defect liability period (DLP) - which is 10 years for cement roads.
Now 80/20
BMC had published a tender of road works worth R600 crore for cement roads and Rs 233 crore for asphalt roads. But after the cost escalation, the civic body had to scrap more than 50 per cent of the works.
Now the civic body has re-tendered them with a new formula of 80/20 in which 20 per cent of the amount will be given in phases till completion of DLP.
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