BMC awards contract to firm disqualified earlier

All the flak the civic body has received lately has made no impact on its lackadaisical attitude towards the city’s infrastructure.

All the flak the civic body has received lately has made no impact on its lackadaisical attitude towards the city’s infrastructure.

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On Friday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) discovered that it has handed over a water project to RP Shah Infra Projects Ltd (RPS Infra) on September 13, less than two weeks after the firm had been disqualified from a road contract for not disclosing important information during the bidding process. The disqualification was reported in HT’s September 7 edition.

RPS Infra had not disclosed that it has undertaken a civic project of more than Rs 100 crore that is lying incomplete as this information would have put the firm at a disadvantage during the bidding process.

The firm hid the same information once again, despite which the water department awarded it a Rs 70-crore project.

Though the contractor had been disqualified, on September 9, the civic standing committee cleared the proposal to award the water projects contracts.

The work order was issued to six contractors on September 13. “We discovered the goof-up when another scrutiny of documents was done,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

The BMC now wants legal opinion on whether it should disqualify RPS Infra from the water project as well.

“We have sought legal opinion over the issue as the work order to RPS Infra has already been issued,” said Rajiv Jalota, additional municipal commissioner.

The water project is meant to improve the city’s water distribution network by laying new pipelines.