Contractors cut corners

One of the reasons for the lack of durability of city roads is corruption in the system, which leads to sub-standard work 

Contractors can be seen at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) office right from 8:30am to 9pm, hobnobbing with officials on various floors. They are usually simply dressed and could pass off as BMC employees.

In fact, you can even see them in the BMC canteen eating vadas with the staff. Their contacts range right from the liftman to the top bureaucrats in the corporation. Their cellphones and laptops are loaded with worksheets and presentations, ready for any new bid.

Outside the BMC, the major contractors have a different persona, however, with designer cars, palatial houses with personal swimming pools.

Officials who did not want to be named said the corrupt contracting system is the real bane of the city’s roads. A system of cuts or flat sums are given across departments despite well-publicised efforts to cleanse the system. Sources say there is a percentage-wise cut for different officers involved with projects, with the biggest cuts often going to project supervisors. The fallout is sub-standard work.

“The real work is completed at one-third of the ‘quoted’ cost, so you can imagine where the problem lies. When all the corners have been cut, can it be a surprise that the condition of our roads is so pathetic that they get washed away every monsoon?” asked one official.

“In order to procure projects, contractors quote low prices, then compromise on quality. The BMC commissioner and the chief minister should change the policy of awarding the tender to the lowest bidder. This is crippling our system,” said Shubha Raul, Mumbai mayor.

“Roads, sewage and now the paver blocks are the major money-making projects in the corporation today. Contractors often use soil instead of cement to lay paver blocks. The officials are to be blamed if there is corruption and contractors are cutting corners,” said Digambar Kandarkar, former corporator and general secretary of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Officials can favour contractors, right from the tender stage, by setting or removing pre-conditions for granting projects. Three or four contractors can also form a cartel to corner all the major projects, with such conditions being set in the tenders making it difficult for a single contractor to bid for them.

Another common trick, according to insiders, is to get a road project and then look for sanctions for drainage, sewage and water supply works at the same spot. Due to either a lack of cross-checking between departments or the connivance of officials, there can be duplication in the billing with two or more departments being charged for the same piece of work. This practice even has a term that is familiar in BMC corridors — ‘AD’.