BMC pipeline project cost spiralled by Rs 300 crore……..Nauzer K Bharucha
MUMBAI: A BMC water pipeline project was awarded last year for about Rs 300 crore more than what was initially estimated by its own consultant.
The consultant, Mott MacDonald, had pegged the project cost at Rs 825 crore in 2008. But the 41.35-km pipeline project in Thane district was finally approved in August 2009 by the civic standing committee and awarded to three firms for Rs 1,133 crore.
TOI has learnt that the BMC had received a bid from an engineering giant for Rs 909 crore. “However, the bid was disqualified on the ground that this company had an MoU with a pipe-fabricating agency, which did not meet the BMC’s tender requirement,” an official said.
The tender condition stipulated that the pipe fabricator must have manufactured 20,000 metric tonnes of pipes of 2,700-mm diameter and above in any one year over the last five years. “The Rs 909-crore bid was not opened because the fabricator had produced 23,000 metric tonnes of pipe of 2,350-mm diameter in a year,” the official said.
The contract was instead awarded to Pratibha Industries Ltd, IVRCL-KIPL joint venture and Unity Infrastructure Ltd. The cost escalated by Rs 300 crore within just one year after Mott MacDonald submitted its project report to the civic administration in 2008. The work is part of an ongoing project to replace the old water pipelines from Tansa to Powai that were installed in 1926.
The BMC broke up the 41.35-km pipeline contract into three parts to be awarded to three lowest bidders: section 1 from Tansa to Jamboli (13.85 km), section 2 from Jamboli to Chinchavli (15.70 km) and section 3 from Chinchavli to Tarali (11.80 km). The administration justified breaking up the project into three parts so that that the work could be carried out faster.
Seventeen big firms showed interest in the project and attended the pre-bid meeting called by the BMC on June 19, 2009. But most of them did not submit the bids, leaving the field open for only six companies. Of them, some were disqualified by the BMC because they allegedly could not produce a valid ISI licence and ISO certification or did not have the capacity to produce certain type of steel. Others were rejected because the BMC said they were not able to reply to important queries raised by it.
The civic administration justified the cost escalation on the grounds that the consultant had not taken into account the digging charges, labour cess, stamp duty, octroi charges, transporting construction material, procuring permission from the environment ministry and the forests department. On Thursday, TOI reported how a 15.1-km water tunnel project, earlier estimated at Rs 1,122 crore, was finally awarded to 2 firms for Rs 2,019 crore.