MSRDC accused of irregularities in Mumbai-Pune E-way truck terminal project

The terminal was to be built on the MumbaiPune Expressway Representation picA WRIT petition filed in the Bombay High Court on February 15 by residents of Lonavla and Khalapur alleging officials from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC have committed irregularities and illegalities in a truck terminal project on the MumbaiPune Expressway The petitioners Ramesh Sharma and Mehboob Jamadar have demanded an inquiry from CBI and CID and asked the court to make MSRDC officials to pay for the loss from their own pocketsThe terminalThe project dates back to 2010 when Latur resident Deepak Patil brought to light a major scam which took place that year under the CongressNCP government in the tendering process of the Rs 2000crore truck terminal project on the MumbaiPune ExpresswayIn 2010 MSRDC decided to build a truck terminal alongside both corridors of the expressway due to nonavailability of separate parking facility for heavy vehicles Accordingly MSRDC hired a company Ms Darashaw and Co to develop six plots of land As per the proposal the company was to develop a parking facility on 50 per cent of the land and utilise the remaining for commercial activitiesNew rulesIn 2015 the BJP government decided to cancel the tender and issue another one This time the cost of the project was pegged at Rs 10 crore For the new Rs 10crore project bidders were expected to have a minimum experience of seven years in business and to have developed at least nine truckbuscontainer terminus during that period of time Further they had to have an average annual turnover of not less than Rs 10 crore with a net worth of the same amountBut Patil claims a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General CAG who carried out a survey revealed that Vikram Telematics and Mystical Technoplast who were among the final six companies shortlisted for the project did not fulfil the requirement of having a net worth of R10 croreWhile Vikram Telematics turnover was Rs 332 crore and Rs 348 crore for 20112012 and 20122013 respectively Mystical Technoplasts turnover during that same period was Rs 125 crore and Rs 137 crore respectively Vikram Telematics also didnt have the minimum seven years experience Further the conditions in the tender were also allegedly changed later in favour of the companies The selection of the companies was not transparent which has resulted in losses to MSRDC alleged PatilWrote to CM PMIn 2016 Patil 59 who owns eight acres of land near area demarcated for the truck terminal project had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appealing them to register a case against the defaulters who were responsible for manipulating the tendering process for construction of the terminal and also asked them to investigate on what basis MSRDC had previously quoted R2000 crore for the projectIn 2017 when the Assembly was in session former Congress leader Narayan Rane had raised a question regarding the scam to which Eknath Shinde the PWD minister had replied that they were going to have an inquiry Accordingly CAG and the Khalapur police were roped in to conduct the inquiry Even as the team was conducting a probe into the case the 2015 scam came to light in the retendering process They also managed to prove that there was merit to Patils allegationsThe CAG report and the DYSP report have clearly shown the losses But if there has been no action they should carry out a CBI or CID inquiry into it The report that will come from it will help reveal the losses suffered by the government However we demand that the money for the loss be collected from the pockets of MSRDC officials said SharmaTendering faulty tooJamadar an activist from Khalapur claims the tendering process itself is faulty as the authorities have not followed the norms When we gathered information through RTI it revealed the facts and losses faced by the government in the project But when we asked officials to clarify the same they denied it The losses should be recovered from the officials Firstly a case should be registered and accordingly recovery should be carried out he saidCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates