BMC's Road Rage

The road scam I have been voicing since January 2023 can be divided into 3 simple parts, and I have listed each of the 3 below. Now it is for you, as a citizen to decide how big this scam is.

Scale, Scam and Setting.

The Scale:?

The BMC that has on going works of roads from 2021-22 suddenly decided, due to the whim of the State’s unconstitutional CM, that 400 km of roads in Mumbai would be concretised through one time tenders, instead of phases.

Roads are largely either concrete or asphalt, depending on the width and the need.?It is never all concrete in any developed city, globally.

More importantly though, in a city like Mumbai where even working on 50 metres in one go is a tough job due to traffic and pedestrian density, one wonders the need to tender out 400 km of roads to contractor friends of those in government, at hiked costs for the BMC (and the taxpayer) in such a hurry.

The fair season of road works in Mumbai begins around October and ends on 31st May, every year, anticipating monsoons. Some of the roads works that have begun, have only been initiated in April. One wonders how much of it will be completed by 31st May, 2023.

The unconstitutional CM, himself, has replied in the assembly that the works of 2021-22 would take 36 months to complete (barring the periods of monsoons), and one has to only wonder now about 400 km road contracts handed to contractor friends.

The Scam (for you to judge):

• The first tenders were called for in August, 2022 for approximately ?5000 crores. It drew no response. It got cancelled.
• Then the BMC revised and increased its estimate costs (Schedule of Rates) by up to 20% (from the last baseline) to attract contractors of “national experience”.?
• The increase of an approximate 20% in the Schedule of Rates (claiming increased prices of steel, cement etc) is actually a hike of 40% for contractors.
• For decades, all contractors would bid at an average 20% below the estimate cost of the road tender. This was still higher than other cities in India, considering the challenges of a traffic dense city like Mumbai and its narrow gullies.
• However, as if a hike of 40% was not enough, the 5 contractor friends of those in the unconstitutional government, bid an average of 8% above the revised and hiked estimated costs of the BMC, thereby taking up the average escalation to almost 48%.
• And, as if this gain was not enough, the BMC will be giving 18% of GST separate, which was not the case earlier, for roads at least.
• Mumbai is now paying almost 66% higher to contractor friends of this illegal government, for roads that won't finish over the next 5 years.
• Over and above the gains made by the contractor friends of the government, the BMC has been made to give 10% advance mobilisation to contractors, before they commence works.
• Advance Mobilisation is given to green-field works in the country, never for gullies of cities like Mumbai. Almost ?650 crores, with interest, for works that will not start until the end of 2024, is purely a fraud and a way of draining Mumbai's BMC of its finances.
• Imagine your money being wasted to benefit the contractor friends of someone in government, in a manner of 40% + 8% + 18% + 10%
• Mumbaikars get a BMC depleted of funds, traffic, chaos and water logging to make these contractors rich.
• If a concrete road in Mumbai was being made at ?10 crores per km, now it is estimated that it will be around ?17 crores per km.
• This, by the way, is only for the road surfaces. It does not include the works of street furniture, where the BMC has indulged in another irregularity of Rs 263 crores, blatantly for another contractor.

Setting (Cartels):

(5 Contractors, 5 Packets) + (Perfectly only 3 bidders for each packet) + (Each bidder wins 1 bid each at an average 8% hike) = Cartel to loot us Mumbaikars?

• 5 Contractors of national experience (by tenders tailored made for them) appeared for the 5 bid packets of these mega tenders.
• As needed by norms, of the 5, only 3 in varying patterns filled in for each bid, making it apparent that it was to facilitate/ fix each packet for one bidder each, of the 5.
• Above the 40% hike in bid costs, each winning bidder bid between 5% to 8% higher than the new estimated bid price.
• Those meant to lose the bid, had quoted their prices in a range of 9% to 13% more than the bid price.
• Evidently enough, not a single bidder has won 2 bids, or lost all. Each bidder, won a packet each. The pattern is clear in the table attached.

If this is not bid- fixing or cartelisation, then what is?

Time and again, I have voiced my fellow Mumbaikars and posed a few questions to the BMC through official letters to the Municipal Commissioner, that the BMC has failed to answer.

I could be wrong, but I have placed the questions below, it is up to you, to see whether these questions are necessary for us to know as citizens or not.

The answers Mumbaikars seek are:

1. Whether the work orders have been issued at the competitive bid price (average 8% above the estimated price) or “at par” as claimed once by the BMC??
2. If they are given “at par” of BMC’s revised estimates, then it means that the bidding process has not been followed and tenders have been awarded unilaterally at the whim of the BMC administration.
3. Whether a “no escalation clause” has been inserted in these contracts and what actions would allow escalation of the cost?
4. How many road works have begun from these work orders that have been issued??
5. How many NoCs have been received from the Mumbai Traffic Police and other agencies??
6. Whether or not the proposed 10% “advance mobilisation” money has been given to contractors??
7. Will the 2 week stoppage of gravel supply and its subsequent hike in prices affect the costs of any of these work orders??
8. In the absence of elected representatives from March 2022, who has proposed these road works of 400 km??
9. In the absence of elected representatives’ committees, who has approved the road works of 400 km?
10. What is the revised timeline of the road works, if not started before 31st May 2023, and whether advance mobilisation will be paid to road works that are proposed to start post monsoon in 2023, or later?

The Aftermath for the city, Happy- math for Contractors :

• Even as I publish this article and voice my concerns over the state of the BMC once more, more than 90% of road works in Mumbai haven't started.
• Some works that were started were brought to a grinding halt due to the Gravel Scam that I have extensively spoken and written about. Below is the link to the details of the scam.
• https://www.news18.com/india/mumbai-road-projects-stuck-due-to-lack-of-sand-gravel-supply-want-white-paper-on-contracts-aaditya-7593871.html
• Road works due to the delay with gravel shortage, will not be able to come to a safe closure before monsoons.
• Public Representatives from all parties have complained about this publicly and as a result the BMC fined some of these contractors. However the fines are too petty and may have been paid from the advance fund given by the BMC itself.

While we all are worried about BMC's treasury, our roads and the state of administration, the unconstitutional CM refuses to be answerable to the Mumbaikars.

If the Karnataka Government has been popularly called the 40% government by many in the state, this unconstitutional government is actually and directly run by builder and contractor friends of those in the chair.

Road Mega Tender Scam + Gravel Supply Monopoly Scam + Street Furniture Scam= Builder- Contractor Sarkar!

In the absence of elected representatives, it is the illegal CM's moral duty holding the Urban Development department, to respond.

But, alas, morality and him are worlds apart.