MPCC secy alleges corruption in ₹4000-crore Mumbai desalination project
MUMBAI: Mumbai Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sachin Sawant has alleged a serious irregularity in the ₹4000-crore desalination project being carried out by the BMC
MUMBAI: Mumbai Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sachin Sawant has alleged a serious irregularity in the ₹4000-crore desalination project being carried out by the BMC. The project was promoted by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in order to save the lakhs of trees that would have been destroyed for the Gargai dam project. In the desalination project, sea water will be treated and supplied to Mumbaikars.
The BMC had issued tenders for the design, engineering, construction and commissioning of a 200-MLD capacity desalination plant (expandable to 400MLD) based on sea water reverse osmosis. Its operation and maintenance for 20 years will cost ₹4,000 crore.
Sawant on Saturday said that the BMC received two bids for the project, of which one bid was that of Gawar Construction. He alleged that the bid was only to provide a supporting bid to the L1 bidder (the technically qualified bidder who has submitted the lowest price offer in the tender process) IDE.
“Gawar Construction has submitted that it is in a joint venture (JV) with Veolia as the technology partner,” said Sawant. “However no JV agreement between Gawar and Veolia has been submitted in the tender documents. Gawar has merely submitted on its own letterhead that it is associated with Veolia for this project without any authorised signature or stamp from Veolia on the letter.”
The MPCC general secretary said that non-submission of the JV agreement itself was a non-curable defect. “Also, in both the bids, the shareholding percentages between the JV partners are not submitted, which is again a mandatory condition of the tender,” he said. “This is pure cartelisation to show that more than one bid has been received. However, I believe the consultant on this project has refused to sign on this submission and is being pressured to qualify both bids.”
Sawant said this was probably the third time the tender had been floated only to give this job to IDE “for reasons beyond understanding”. “Global companies such as SWCC, Global Omnium, UTICO, SUEZ, ABENGOA, TECTON and WABAG, which are either equally qualified or larger than IDE, are not being allowed to participate, given the technical conditions set purely for IDE,” he alleged.
The MPCC general secretary said that Gawar Construction had apparently been blacklisted in Rajasthan, and that Veolia had no information of any such submission being done on their behalf. “The same should be verified,” he said. He has also asked BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani to explain and immediately cancel the entire tender process.
A senior BMC officer said, “We have examined both bids, and our consultants found that Package A of the bid was scrutinised and some defects were non-curable. Consultants have written that both bids cannot be processed.”