The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has denounced the “infructuous expenditure of Rs 4.71 crore” incurred by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to appoint an independent engineer
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has denounced the “infructuous expenditure of Rs 4.71 crore” incurred by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to appoint an independent engineer (IE) for a metro project that had to be shelved in the absence of an environment clearance.
The implementation of the Charkop-Mankhurd Metro-2 project was assigned to Reliance Infrastructure, which had formed a separate company named Mumbai Metro Transport Private Limited (MMTPL).
“We observed that before entering into the concession agreement Reliance Infrastructure had pointed out that substantial area on the Metro-2 project was falling under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ), and this was not notified to them at the bidding stage. It was also stated that this would be an impediment in the execution of the project. Therefore, instead of taking steps for resolution of the environmental clearances, the MMRC went ahead with appointment of the IE and also released their payments,” the report stated.
The Metro-2 project was a 32-km-long project and was pegged at Rs 7,660 crore for which the state government had entered into a concession agreement (CA) in 2010 with MMTPL that provided for appointment of a consulting engineering firm for rendering consultancy services as an IE. It was followed by a supplementary agreement with MMPTL in 2011 for designating MMRC as project implementing agency.
The CAG report further, stated, “The services of the IE was terminated in August 2013 owing to uncertainty regarding the project. The decision of the MMRC to go ahead with appointment of IE acknowledging the issues which required resolution for a mammoth project of this nature to commence resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 4.71 crore.”
The MMRC in a reply to CAG’s query stated that expertise of the IE was necessary for various activities such as site surveys, identifying utilities. However, the reply of the MMRC was not acceptable, since it was well aware of the fact that environmental clearances were required, the CAG report concluded.
