Major furore on minor road building project

An action-packed session unfurled in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation building on Thursday over the Rs 375-crore minor road building project.

After debating the project for hours, the civic standing committee rejected the proposal, accusing the administration of corruption and partiality.

The corporators present in the meeting criticised the administration for unethically bending rules to accommodate carboncor technology. They alleged this was the reason behind the delay.

“It’s evident that the officials are cooking up the possibility to include carboncor overriding the legal tendering procedure. They deliberately delayed the project,” said Balchandra Shirsat, corporator.

The minor roadwork proposal talks of building around 700 road stretches of less than 30 metres. The work was slated to begin from December 1.

BJP corporator Ashish Shelar alleged that by committing the act of omission, the additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta had committed an act of corruption. He demanded that the entire proposal be sent to the Lokayukta for scrutiny.

Corporators stated that even though the carboncor suppliers in India, Sumer Infrastructure, did not bid in the tendering process, the firm was given a contract worth of Rs 17 crore.

Gupta, however, refuted the allegation and stated that the administration had signed the proposal and submitted it to the municipal secretary on November 30.

“It’s unfair to blame the administration for trying out a new technique,” he said. “We were amending the policy so that 5% of the total contract can be spent on experimentation.”