MUMBAI: A demolition contractor registered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has alleged that a contract to demolish the municipal fish market at CSMT has been “fixed”.
Contractor Mohammad Husaain, and five other contractors, alleged that neither the invitation to demolish nor the quotation notice was uploaded on BMC’s website. Demolition work at the old fish market located at the southern-end of JJ flyover has already begun.
"Regrettably, BMC tenders and contracts have always been embroiled in controversies with allegations of lack of transparency and nepotism. The BMCmay claim these demolition contractors have an axe to grind as they lost out on the contract. Nevertheless, their allegations are serious and must be probed, especially when they claim they were ready to pay BMC Rs 25 lakh for demolition work. Otherwise, why should the A ward office award the contract on a ‘no profit-no loss’ basis?-TimesView"
Typically, a demolition deal would involve the contractor having to clear rubble from the demolition site and only then can he cart away all iron fittings and aluminium from the rubble which he can sell as scrap. In the current case, the BMC has given out the demolition task on a ‘no-profit, no-loss’ basis.
The BMC, on its part, has refuted the ‘fixing’ allegation, saying that its computer server was down due to which it could not follow the usual process of tendering works.
Hussain and the others have written to the BMC chief that they are “willing to pay Rs 25 lakh for demolition as there are valuable iron and aluminium fittings” in the old market.
“We believe there has been some mischief in allotment of work. An inquiry must be held,” said Hussain.
The assistant commissioner of ‘A’ ward put up a notice on July 12, inviting spot quotations, he said, adding that the deadline to was the next day (July 13). He further said that it was put up on the notice board of the ‘A’ ward office and no one was aware that such a notice had been put up. “Due to the pandemic restrictions, one cannot be expect to visit the ward office to check the notice board,” said Hussain. “Also, the deadline to submit tenders is usually anywhere between three and seven days. In this case, just a day’s notice was given”
Assistant municipal commissioner of A ward, Chanda Jadhav, said, “This is a court matter. The court had directed the market department to demolish the market immediately. Therefore, short tender notice inviting quotation from registered demolition contractor was displayed on the office notice board as the [computer] system, including portal, were down for upgrade.”
