The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has nailed the contractor who charged the corporation Rs 142 crore for constructing a 1.5- km road.
A probe has revealed that the contractor, RPS Infra, used substandard material for constructing the road, touted as the costliest in the city, and duped the BMC by producing bogus challans.
The civic body picked up 10 of the contractor's 92 bills for transporting raw materials. "All the 10 turned out to be bogus," said a senior civic official.
The probe was conducted by Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh, who told dna that he had recommended a detailed inquiry.
Nitin Shah, who owns RPS Infra, was not available for comment.
"The Ready Mix Cement (RMC) plant is located in Powai while the work was in Vidyavihar. Trucks would easily take at least one hour for loading and unloading. However, trucks have made multiple trips in just a few hours. Material used was also of poor quality," reads Deshmukh's report.
dna had, on August …., reported that the construction of the Ramdev Peer Marg in Vidyavihar had caught civic chief Ajoy Mehta's attention.
The contract for building the road in cement concrete was awarded to RPS Infra in 2010 for Rs 128 crore. Though work is yet to be completed, costs escalated 13% and the civic body had to shell out Rs 142 crore.
Officials attributed the cost escalation to a massive delay in clearing a bottleneck in one location of the road, connecting Kurla (West) and Vidyavihar (West) railway stations.
Though the road was marked in the city's Development Plan (DP), the plan never took off and it remained a mud road for years. A parch of land earmarked for the road was with the state transport corporation. That was the hurdle.
BJP group leader Manoj Kotak, who demanded a probe into the construction of Ramdev Peer Marg, said: "The contractor has been nailed in the report. No wonder the cost was so high. Stern action should be taken against him."
The detailed inquiry has now been handed over to a two- member panel led by Deputy Municipal Commissioner Vasant Prabhu, who is probing allegations of corruption and irregularities in the city's road works.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "BMC")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}