BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Saturday alleged that there are irregularities worth Rs 1,600 crore in the Mumbai Coastal Road project being executed by the Shiv Sena-ruled BMC. Addressing a press conference, he said that corrupt consultants and contractors should be blacklisted and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) should be constituted by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to probe the officials and others. Which he said was a big scam.
Shelar said the BJP was in favor of a road that would connect Kandivali in the north of the metropolis to Nariman Point in south Mumbai, but it would not let corruption go unpunished. He said the BMC had appointed two consultants for the phase between Priyadarshini Park in Malabar Hill to Baroda Palace (near Haji Ali), with AE Com as general advisor and Louis Berger as project consultant.
He said that both these consultants were to give a list of certified mines from where the backfill material was to be procured for improvement. Shelar claimed that the standing committee of the BMC had approved Rs 600 crore to be paid to these two consultants, who were tasked with ensuring that the project progresses in the right direction.
“However, instead of procuring the material from the mines recommended by these consultants, it was procured from other non-approved mines, thus creating doubts about the quality of the work. About 8.5 lakhs used for the improvement Tons of material were illegally procured and procured from six mines,” he said. “Who owns these mines? Who is benefiting from the materials being obtained from them? In another case, the mine was certified but the material received was not certified. Procurement was not done, whereas in one case, a mine was later added to the list of approved people,” alleged the BJP leader.
He said that due to such irregularities, 2.8 million tonnes of substandard quality material has been dumped into the sea in the last one year as part of remedial work, the BMC officials, advisors as well as the civic body’s standing committee said this. Not doing enough to stop. this scenario. Shelar said he had written to Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav asking whether the BMC was adhering to the norms under which it was allowed to go ahead with the project.
“If the environmental norms are not followed, the Center should immediately seek clarification from the BMC. BMC should not spare the wrong contractors. We are keen to discuss the project in the interest of Mumbaikars and not to make it one to the ruling Shiv Sena. It should be an issue of prestige,” the MLA said. Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in a statement dismissed Shelar’s allegations as baseless and said the material was procured from certified quarries with regular quality testing.
“Rs 229 crore is being given to the Project Management Consultant and a General Consultant for the project and not Rs 600 crore wherein the fees are being paid in phases and not all at once. October, 2018 to December , Till 2020, Rs.683.82 crore of work has been done, so it would be wrong to say that irregularities of Rs.1,600 crore have been done.”
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