Internal dispute between two companies may delay BRTS launch

Of the two,Kaizen Automation has issued a public notice warning any third party against dealing with Kaizen Engineering with regard to automated fare collection business with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The notice says that pursuant to a joint venture agreement dated June 16,2006 executed between Khaleej Finance and Investment (now known as Capivest),Prakash Kamat,his wife Geeta Kamat and Kaizen,it was agreed that the automated fare collection business shall be carried out exclusively by Kaizen Engineering Systems Pvt Ltd,headed by Prakash Kamat. It has entered an agreement with the AMC for a similar business,which is in breach of the joint venture agreement.

“We are in the process of initiating legal proceedings against Prakash Kamat,Geeta Kamat and KESPL… the public is hereby cautioned against dealing with Prakash Kamat and/or Geeta Kamat and/or KESPL or any other entity directly or indirectly controlled by any of the aforesaid persons/entities for any project for automated fare collection business,” says the notice.

Reacting to this,Ranjit Kamat of Kaizen Engineering said this was a dispute between two firms,which were promoted by Prakash Kamat,his father. He said that a special purpose vehicle,the name of which was yet to be finalised,would be implementing the contract with AJL. He said the allegations levelled against Kaizen Engineering were baseless and that company was perfectly above board.

However,this has rattled the AMC and AJL officials,which promptly called in the contracting firm’s representatives for an explanation. Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam said the AMC was aware of the matter and that there was no doubt about the competency of the company on execution of the contract,but certain things had to be clarified.

“We had called officials of the firm to offer their explanation in this regard and they met our officials yesterday,” he said,adding that this was an internal dispute between companies of the same group. He said there was no question of this portion (ticketing) of the project getting delayed as of now.

This happened just when part of the first phase is in the last leg of completion and its launch is awaited eagerly. The BRT system is enabled with Intelligent Traffic System (ITS). Kaizen Engineering Systems’ devices and equipment are currently operational in BEST buses in Mumbai. It vied for providing automated fare collection,vehicle tracking and fleet management system and passenger information system among other software facilities.