‘Tainted’ infra firm bags Metro contract

City-based J Kumar Infraprojects, the company that has been in the news in connection with the Rs 352 crore Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) road repairs scam, has been awarded a contract for civil works related to the Rs 6,410-crore DN Nagar-Dahisar Metro-2A corridor by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

J Kumar has been booked by the Mumbai police under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) such as Section 420 (cheating), 197 (signing or issuing false certificate) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) in the BMC road scam.

However, the DMRC, the project’s implementing agency, claims that the contract was awarded to J Kumar as it was the lowest bidder for both the packages in which the civil work for Metro-2A had been divided. “Proper consultation was taken from our legal department and there is nothing that may act as a obstacle for us to award contracts to J Kumar,” a senior DMRC official said.

Activists had earlier slammed the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for awarding a civil contract for the Andheri east-Dahisar east Metro-7 corridor to J Kumar earlier. Similarly, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) also had awarded a Rs 5,000 crore (approximately) civil work contract to J Kumar for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 underground corridor.

CM Devendra Fadnavis had, on May 13, told The Asian Age he would be reviewing the decision to award the Metro works to J Kumar in the city, however, a text message sent to Mr Fadnavis on Tuesday to inquire on the status of his review, remained unanswered.

The MMRDA had entrusted DMRC to execute the Metro-2A corridor in December 2015 followed by which the DMRC had invited bids in January 2016. Also, the state is in the process of tying up with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for partly funding three elevated corridors in the city: The Dahisar-east Andheri-east Metro-7 corridor, the Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2A and the DN Nagar-Bandra-Mankhurd Metro-2B corridor. The ADB had given an assurance last year that it would offer 36 per cent of the funds for the 16.5-km Metro-7 corridor and 44 per cent for the 18-km Metro-2A corridor.