BMC sets 3-day deadline for contractors

Slammed for failing to get its contractors to start work, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has directed contractors to begin work within three days of tenders being cleared.

As per the change in tender conditions made in the new civil work contract system (CWC), contractors will have to begin work within three days of tender clearance, and the civic body will base quality of work to decide if the contract should be extended to the full cap of Rs 40 lakh.

In May, the civic body had issued small contracts worth Rs 5 lakh for petty works on a trial basis as per the new civil work contract (CWC) system.

"The new system will have a deadline of three days for contractors to begin work. Engineers who have been registered as well as unemployed contractors will also be involved in the new system. In case of an unemployed engineer, there will be a cap of 15 lakh for three contracts," said BMC chief Sitaram Kunte while admitting hiccups in getting the new system in place.

In his letter to the BMC commissioner and additional municipal commissioners earlier this year, chief accountant Ram Dhas had exposed malpractice in the previous CWC system alleging that contractors were hand-in-glove with corporators and ward staff and were getting unnecessary budgetary provisions.

Fifteen months before Dhas' letter, former Chief Auditor P Pisolkar had written to former BMC chief Subodh Kumar alleging that the handing out of CWC contracts had become 'contractor driven' rather than 'need based'. Pisolkar had stated that contractors had resorted to favouritism in all 24 wards in the city making it a 'contractor driven project' of Rs 2,200 crore in the entire BMC.

With the new CWC system, the civic body aims at weeding out fund misappropriation and ensuring quality work thorough checks.

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