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Tainted contractors to work again

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has sought legal opinion on whether or not it can award contracts to two civic contractors — J Kumar Infra and Relcon Infraprojects — which

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has sought legal opinion on whether or not it can award contracts to two civic contractors — J Kumar Infra and Relcon Infraprojects — which have been blacklisted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for their allegedly shoddy road repair work. The MMRDA is the implementing authority of key projects such as 22-km-long Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) and underground tunnel at the Western Express Highway (WEH).

J Kumar Infra and Relcon Infraprojects have bidded for the projects being implemented by the MMRDA. The municipal corporation had paid them total Rs 350 crore for road repairs. An FIR has also been filed against these two firms.

J Kumar Infra has bidded for a single package out of three packages in total with 39 other domestic and international firms. The total cost for the construction of MTHL is around Rs 17,500 crore. Relcon Infraprojects has bidded for widening and construction of the existing Akurli subway at WEH and the construction of the proposed flyover over Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) and cost of the both projects is around Rs 50 crore approximately.

The MMRDA, last week, wrote a letter to the advocate general asking if it can consider the bids submitted by the firms.

“In order to avoid any complications in the future, we have sought opinion from the AG as the contractors were blacklisted by the BMC. After getting an opinion on the same, we will decide on whether or not the bids submitted by these two companies can be cancelled,” said Sanjay Khandare, additional metropolitan commissioner.

Interestingly, the MMRDA has already appointed J Kumar Infra for the construction on one of the three packages for civil construction of the Dahisar east- Andheri east Metro-7 corridor and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the construction of the whole DN Nagar –Dahisar Metro-2A corridor.

While awarding the projects to J Kumar, the MMRDA and DMRC at the time had maintained that it had taken the opinion of its legal department and found no technical grounds to reject the bids of the contractor.

Allegations dog 2 firms J Kumar infra and Relcon Infraprojects have 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. The police had claimed that on an average, the contractors did not use 53 per cent of the material needed. In some cases, they did not use any of the material required to build good roads, which is why we can see potholes after the first rains of the season.

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