Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Gammon Bhopal are at loggerheads over the issue of payment of Narmada surcharge, with Gammon Bhopal even smelling a conspiracy on the part of BMC against their ambitious project in South TT Nagar.
While BMC claims it has the right to levy Narmada surcharge on any new constructions in Bhopal, Deepmala Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which is special purpose company of Gammon, alleges that BMC has wrongly calculated the Narmada surcharge on the built-up area of the project.
Responding to this, a very senior officer in BMC told HT that the municipal body has the right to ask for pending dues, especially when it runs into crores (Rs. 1.69 crore). He said there is no conspiracy on the part of BMC, which had levied Narmada surcharge in case of Gammon in the same way as it had done in case of 610 building permission cases.
“Actually Deepmala Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (Gammon Bhopal) had to pay a Narmada surcharge amounting to Rs. 3.16 crore. But after they gave a representation before the BMC city planner, he recalculated it and revised the amount and brought it down to Rs. 1.49 crore, which they paid. When BMC commissioner came to know about it, he sought explanation from the city planner as to how he on his own did it and didn’t consult his superiors. Then accordingly, BMC sought the payment of the rest of the amount from Gammon Bhopal. They themselves have asked for time on January 2 so that they could talk about these issues and see the documents to satisfy themselves,” said the officer, wishing not to named.
When contacted, project in charge ( construction) Deepmala Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Bharatbushan Thombare said, they want see the document that the BMC had received from the state government, on the basis of which it was charging the said amount from Gammon Bhopal. “We are ready to pay the rest of the amount but first we have to see the documents and apprise our headquarters about the issue. The main issue is that BMC had earlier charged us on a wrong calculation, which was revised by BMC after our representation. Now if they are saying there is a pending amount, they have to show us documents and give us some time, may be a week,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}When contacted, project in charge ( construction) Deepmala Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Bharatbushan Thombare said, they want see the document that the BMC had received from the state government, on the basis of which it was charging the said amount from Gammon Bhopal. “We are ready to pay the rest of the amount but first we have to see the documents and apprise our headquarters about the issue. The main issue is that BMC had earlier charged us on a wrong calculation, which was revised by BMC after our representation. Now if they are saying there is a pending amount, they have to show us documents and give us some time, may be a week,” he said.
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