BMC to get 48 cars on lease for mayor, officials

These vehicles will be procured at a cost of ₹12 crore for five years – the average monthly rental being ₹42,000 per vehicle. The mayor and deputy mayor will get hybrid Innova cars, while chairpersons of various committees, the leader of the house and the leader of opposition will get Scorpios

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will procure 48 cars on lease for five years, including 14 cars for elected representatives such as the incoming mayor, deputy mayor and chairpersons of various committees, said deputy municipal commissioner Kiran Dighavkar (solid waste management), who also heads the civic body’s transport department.

BMC headquarters (Hindustan Times)

The 48 vehicles will be procured on lease at a cost of ₹12 crore for five years – the average monthly rental being ₹42,000 per vehicle. The mayor and deputy mayor will get hybrid Innova cars, while chairpersons of various committees, the leader of the house, the leader of opposition and BMC officials will get Scorpios. The new vehicles will arrive in 8-10 days, before the mayor and other chairpersons take oath, Dighavkar said.

“It would be embarrassing for the BMC if the mayor and other top officials do not have good vehicles to move around,” he said, accounting for the haste in procuring the new vehicles. The decision to procure new vehicles was taken as the vehicles used by the earlier mayor and chairpersons of various standing committees were bought in 2017 and have been handed over for use to other BMC officials, he mentioned.

“We are now trying out a new lease revenue model, wherein the BMC will spend only on drivers and fuel, while the agency which leases out the vehicles will take care of their maintenance,” Dighavkar said.

The vehicles will be handed back to the agency after five years, by which time they start developing maintenance issues, he noted.

The BMC’s earlier standing committee had proposed to buy 23 cars for the mayor and chairpersons of all committees in 2020 at a cost of ₹3 crore. Subsequently, as per the electric vehicle policy promoted by then environment minister Aaditya Thackeray, an electric Tata Nexon was procured on lease for the mayor in 2021.

The BMC had withdrawn the official vehicles of the mayor and other chairpersons four years ago, when their terms expired. Their cars (mostly Scorpios) were handed over to other BMC officials for use.

Responding to the decision to lease 48 cars, former mayor and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar said that ideally, the BMC administration should have waited for new elected representatives to decide on such purchases.

“This administration has been taking all decisions on their own for five years and this could be their parting decision,” Pednekar said.

A few chairpersons had been allotted leased vehicles earlier, she said, though leased vehicles had never been given to mayors.

Civic activist Zoru Bhathena said taking new vehicles on lease was popular with corporates these days as it spared them the hassle of maintaining the vehicles.

“From the BMC’s point of view, purchasing 48 vehicles may have been cheaper. New vehicles also require little maintenance in the first three years. But leasing vehicles at ₹42,000 per month is not such a bad deal either,” Bathena said.

Chairperson of Western India Automobile Association Nitin Dossa felt that ideally the BMC should have practiced what they preach and procured electric vehicles.

“They could also have bargained for a better deal considering the current slump in the automobile market,” Dossa said.

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