Cracking down on corruption in road projects, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta scrapped a Rs 8.2crore reconstruction proposal after finding the road in good condition during a surprise visit on Tuesday.
Moreover, in a bid to break the road contractor cartel and their nexus with officials, he ordered that bids for road projects will have to be submitted online only from now on.
On Tuesday morning, Mehta inspected seven roads in G-South and G-North wards (between Worli and Mahim) that had been earmarked for reconstruction. He found that one of them, B G Kher road in Worli, didn’t need any repair. Mehta asked his office to cancel the proposal that had reached the bidding process.
The commissioner disputed the road department officials’ estimate that the thoroughfare needs to be converted into a cement-concrete carriageway. The road, which does not have to bear too much load, was in good condition. Surprisingly, Mehta has not advised action against the officials who had prepared the proposal.
A road department official said Mehta suggested that the road be reconstructed only when it is dug up to lay stormwater drains. There is no such proposal in the near future.
The decision to shift the road tendering process to online only will break the nexus between officials and contractors and bring in more transparency since secrecy of the bids will be maintained till opening of the submitted tenders. In online road tendering, contractors will have to submit their bids online and they will be locked in an inbox, which will be opened on a specific day to select the best bids.
BMC corporators had been criticizing bad road construction for some time and recently, mayor Snehal Ambekar wrote to Mehta on malpractices in the road department and asked him to inquire about it.
“There are five contractors who have a monopoly on road work and never allow others to participate in the bidding. They discuss the contract price with each other before bidding and ensure that one of them will get it. Despite poor quality work, every year only these contractors get the contracts. Online tendering will break their cartel and encourage new contractors,” said Devendra Amberkar, opposition leader in the BMC from the Congress.