North civic body alleges fraud in parking tenders

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation standing committee on Wednesday alleged that a "fraud" has been committed in the tendering procedures for the Ramlila Maidan and Dangal Maidan parking lots.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation standing committee on Wednesday alleged that a "fraud" has been committed in the tendering procedures for the Ramlila Maidan and Dangal Maidan parking lots.

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VP Pandey, deputy chairman of the committee, said the parking contracts were awarded at just Rs. 1.18 lakh whereas they were supposed to be awarded at Rs. 6.66 lakh each. Due to the "fraud", the corporation is losing Rs. 9 lakh every month, he said.

An estimate of the parking sites further suggests that the civic body has already suffered a loss of over Rs. 2 crore from the two parking sites and there are another 10 parking sites in north Delhi which have been tendered for lesser amounts.

Pandey alleged that both parking lots received nine bids each. The contractors who made the highest bids did not take possession of the parking lots and so the contract was handed over to the contractors who were earlier running it.

"The MCD officials should have initiated the process of blacklisting the two contractors as well as the process of re-tendering ," he alleged. Pandey also sought a detailed report from the N. Delhi Corporation Commissioner PK Gupta.

"On being enquired, the officials said that re-tendering could not be started due to the model code of conduct in force during the MCD Polls in February-March this year," he added.

The committee chairman Yogender Chandolia has now directed the authorities to hand over the possession of the two parking sites to the second highest bidders immediately. He also directed the officials to recover the entire outstanding amount of R5.67 crore from all parking contractors.