Shiv Sena opposes appointment of consultants for Mumbai’s Coastal Road

This is not the first time that the Sena has opposed the appointment of the two consultants.

The Shiv Sena on Saturday opposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) decision to appoint two consultants (called project management consultants) for the city’s proposed coastal road project.

The two consultants will be paid Rs120 crore. After civic chief Ajoy Mehta informed the BMC general body that the administration will appoint the consultants within the next two to three weeks, leader of the house Vishakha Raut opposed the decision citing that the tenders had overstepped their deadline and would need to be floated again. Raut said, “The administration cannot appoint the consultants as the tenders that appointed them have expired.”

This is not the first time that the Sena has opposed the appointment of the two consultants. Sena’s Yashwant Jadhav who is the committee chairman also rejected this proposal in the standing committee meeting on Wednesday.

The BMC administration had proposed to appoint the two consultants on March 9 and had submitted the proposal to the standing committee for approval. The committee did not take up the issue for discussion in the mandated period of 30 days. The proposal was then deemed passed, as per procedure. Following this, on April 18, the ruling Shiv Sena took up the proposal in the standing committee and rejected it.

A senior civic official said, “Sena’s rejection of the proposal in the standing committee did not stand ground because the proposal was deemed passed in the same committee. Now the civic chief can appoint the consultants considering the standing committee passed the proposal by default.”

The work of these two consultants includes overseeing the routine construction work of the first phase of the coastal road, from Princess Street flyover to Worli. They will work under the general consultant appointed by the civic body.