Mumbai: Contractor faked 3 MoUs to bag penguin project

The remaining seven Humboldt penguins at the Byculla zooIn a rush to put Humboldt penguins on public display before the civic polls the Shiv Senaled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC ignored serious noncompliance of tender conditions for the ambitious project Papers accessed by midday revealed that the contractor didnrsquot submit several crucial documents on the basis of which a firm bags the contract in the first place and the lsquolenientrsquo civic body allowed it to start work merely on lsquoverbalrsquo assuranceThe 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 mdash Alpha Constructions for civil work Aaryan Infratech for mechanical and electrical work and Prakriti Nursery for landscaping workHowever 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 ConditionThis 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 enclosuresViolations galoreA senior civic official from the Building Maintenance BM department said ldquoEven after several reminders they failed to explain the absence of the original firms We have sent them notice over the issue on August 11rdquo In the last three months the department has sent nine letters to the contractorAlso Read Finding Dorys killer Authorities in no rushThe BMC had brought eight penguins to the Byculla Zoo from Seoulrsquos Coex Aquarium on July 26 T he project kicked up a controversy after a female Humboldt penguin aged 15 years died in Byculla zoo due to a bacterial infectionIt has come to light that in addition to faking the MoUs the contractor has violated rules at every level mdash from presenting a fake representative of Sivat Services Inc a USbased expert and appointing inexperienced staff to not executing the work as per contract and delaying in purchase of special glass for exhibitsSplit wide openA 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 croreHCC had claimed that it has a joint venture with USbased Sivat and Australian agency Oceanis International Private Limited mdash experts on penguin enclosures mdash for the next five years However all of this turned out to be falseA senior civic official said ldquoOn 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 Levirsquos qualification and work experience details along with the work permit they failed to produce any papersrdquoldquoThe contractor had said Sivat was the lead partner with 74 share However the US firm is not involved in the projectrdquo he addedOpposition up in armsOpposition 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 projectRead Story Mumbai Dead Humboldt penguin haunts Byculla ZooldquoThe BMC has fooled everyone in this project as the contractor got a free hand to work despite not submitting several crucial documentsrdquo he allegedldquoOn 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 itrdquoThe official versionDeputy chief engineer city of the BM department RG Sharma said ldquoI will have to check all the papers since the lower rank officials were handling the issue We have issued notices to the contractor for noncompliance Till now no payment has been done for any work in fact we have fined the contractorrdquoCalls and messages sent to HCC went unanswered