BMC cancels SoBo contractor’s road tenders, imposes ₹50-crore fine

Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIIL) has had its contract terminated by the BMC due to subpar performance in the concretisation of 212 roads in Mumbai. The BMC will impose a penalty of over ₹50 crore on the contractor. RSIIL was one of five companies awarded a ₹6,080-crore contract for road concretisation in the city. The other four companies are also under scrutiny by the BMC. A new tender for the 212 roads is being prepared.

The fate of Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIIL), a company which was tasked with the concretisation of 212 roads in the island city, was sealed by civic chief and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal on Wednesday for subpar performance. The BMC cancelled the contract, and is in the process of reinviting tenders for the 212 roads.

BMC cancels SoBo contractor’s road tenders, imposes ₹50-crore fine

The report regarding the termination of RSIIL’s contract was put up by the BMC’s roads department to Chahal, who confirmed to HT that the contract was terminated on Wednesday morning. The BMC will impose a hefty penalty of over ₹50 crore on the contractor for several violations of tender conditions such as not starting work on time, delaying the work, not doing quality work, not barricading, not providing the required machinery and not showing due diligence.

RSIIL bagged the road contract at an estimated cost of ₹1,200 crore in January this year. It is one of the five companies that landed the ₹6,080-crore, 400-km road concretisation contracts across the city. The deadline for all the companies was 24 months excluding the monsoon.

In April this year, the BMC imposed a penalty of ₹16 crore and a show-cause notice on three of the five firms for failing to start work even three months after getting work orders and for delayed progress.

The other four companies who bagged the road cement-concretising works are also now on the BMC’s radar. “We are waiting for the report on the other four contractors. The performance of every contractor will be checked and a report will be put up,” said a civic official from the roads department.

Meanwhile, the BMC has finalised a parallel road tender with the earlier tender conditions for 212 roads in the island city. “It is in the pipeline for approval,” said the civic official.

While the BJP’s former corporator Makarand Narwekar was the whistleblower in this matter, the issue took a political turn after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray last week complained that even after a week of the termination notice to RSIIL, no action was taken by the BMC despite the final hearing on the contractor’s termination last Friday.