Bangalore civic body needed consultants even to asphalt city roads

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has run up huge bills as payments to consultants. And you would be surprised to learn that some of the services the consultants render fall within the competence of engineers hired by the Palike.

BJP corporator S Harish from Nagarapura ward, during a discussion in the council on Wednesday, said, “The Palike hired private consultation firms for the construction of small works. It has recruited hundreds of assistant executive engineers, chief engineers, and a joint commissioner for carrying out works. The question is, are these men not competent to construct even a Bhajan mandir or a compound wall? The Palike should hire talented engineers who have both the knowledge and the heart to work,” said Harish.

The corporator revealed that the Palike had paid Rs16.5 lakh as consultation services for the preparation of a detailed project report for the provision of basic services for the urban poor in slums in the Palike’s jurisdiction. The BBMP also spent Rs60,000 as consultation fees for drawing up the design and supervising the construction of a two-storey Bhajan Mandir at AK Colony, Frazer Town.

An amount of Rs2.44 lakh was paid to CES (I) Pvt Ltd for the consultancy services the firm offered in the preparation of a draft report on the construction of roads from Yeshwantpur junction to Karnataka Bhavan. Around Rs35 lakh was paid to Manasa Consultancy Service in connection with a signal-free traffic corridor from Mekhri Circle to Old Airport Road, with 21 segments. The charge for each segment was Rs1.7 lakh.

Harish, himself a civil engineer, said, “Officials of the BBMP were responsible for the misappropriation between April 2007 and August 2010. It is a shame that the Palike has sought the services of consultants even for asphalting roads. The commissioner should take action.”

In his reply to the questions posed by the corporator, commissioner Siddaiah said that he too was shocked to hear of the large sums of money that had been unnecessarily spent on consultancy fees. “I deeply regret this. We have our own  engineers in the design section. We need private consultants for projects like flyovers, grade separators, construction of storm water drains and other big projects. I have spoken to the special commissioner and we will take action. We also have to develop in-house competence and we will develop it in future”, said Siddaiah.