Mahayuti government favoured firms in tenders in return for campaign finance donations: Congress

The Congress on Friday alleged that the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra privileged certain companies in infra tenders in return for campaign finance donations costing the taxpayer at least Rs 10903 crore reported news agency PTIThe opposition party asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will be made answerable on thisCongress general secretary incharge communications Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra privileged certain companies in infra tenders in return for campaign finance donations costing the taxpayer at least Rs 10903 crore reported PTIHe said this was akin to prepaid chanda postpaid dhandhaCongress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said The entire nation is aware that BJP brought the Electoral Bonds Scheme to tunnel funds We have time and again highlighted how certain firms who donated to the BJP through the illegal and unconstitutional Electoral Bonds Scheme were given huge projects in lieu of buying electoral bonds Perhaps the biggest state which was duped by this chande ka dhanda was Maharashtra reported PTIAll this was done by upending numerous established standard rules he alleged at a press conference at the AICC headquartersNo wonder an FIR was filed against Sitharaman and other senior BJP leaders he saidMaharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited MSRDC opened the price bid for various highway projects in Maharashtra such as VirarAlibaug Multimodal Corridor MMC Pune Ring Road PRR etc he said reported PTIKhera said the MSRDC had a rule that one bidder would get up to two packages only but this rule was changed by defining eight projects as tunnel projects with different qualification conditionsThis was done to award most of the packages to a few entities he saidThe MSRDC changed the prequalification criteria for these tunnels projects unlike its previous projects such as the Missing Link and Mumbai Nagpur where the prequalification criteria for tunnel diameter and length were kept at 50 per cent for diameter and 20 per cent for length in convergence which is what NHAI MoRTH BRO NHIDCL and others do Khera said reported PTIHe said MSRDC decided to keep the prequalification criteria for tunnel diameter at 78 per cent of the tunnel diameterIt was done so that other bidders could be excluded from the qualification and only three firms qualified for the requirements Khera saidFurther the tunnel length criteria were kept at just 6 per cent ie 250 metres which matches the favoured companys previous experience of 290 metres Mumbai Nagpur Expressway the Congress leader alleged reported PTIFurther these eight projects were also removed from the criteria of a maximum of two packages to each bidder providing special treatment to these companies he allegedKhera pointed to the benchmark price for similar works implemented by NHAI MoRTH etc providing a scope of fair pricesNHAI MoRTH awarded similar tunnel works at the cost of Rs 180 to 200 CrKm whereas MSRDCs operating rating for such tunnels is in the range of Rs 240250 CrKm Khera claimedKhera cited that the bid values for the eight projects stood at Rs 20990 crore while the fair price for the projects would have been Rs 10087 crore The excess price for the projects therefore was Rs 10903 crore reported PTIGiving a timeline Khera said that in April 2023 the MSRDC started inviting Requests for Qualification RFQ for the Pune Ring Road project which was defined as a tunnel projectFor RFQ various firms submitted the applications It seemed as if these projects were defined as tunnel projects for some strange reason he said reported PTIIn June 2023 after receiving the RFQ applications MSRDC again opened the bid and revealed that 28 firms had submitted the applications he saidThe evaluation process of these 28 firms was completed in December 2023 in which it was revealed that 18 firms qualified for the next round Khera said reported PTIAmong these 18 firms a company qualified which later in July 2023 donated in electoral bonds he saidIn January 2024 Khera said the MSRDC invited bid prices for these 18 firms with a construction deadline of 900 daysIn April 2024 they received 26 bids from 12 firms Khera said and added that it must be noted that the lowest bid for each packages construction was significantly higher than MSRDCs estimateHere MSRDC had two choices either increase their budget and give the contracts to the companies with higher bids to start the work or cancel the process and ask for new bids But MSRDC gave contracts to these companies despite their high costs he said reported PTIWill PM Modi FM Nirmala Sitharaman and the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari be made answerable on this Khera said reported PTIThe ruling Mahayuti alliance comprises Eknath Shindes Shiv Sena BJP and Ajit Pawarled NCP while the opposition MVA comprises the Congress the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Sharad Pawarled NCP SPThe Election Commission on Tuesday announced that Maharashtra will vote in one phase on November 20Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced at a press conference that the counting of votes will be held on November 23 a day before the current Maharashtra assembly completes its termWith inputs from PTI