BJP Corporator Urges BMC to Recover Rs 64 Crore Penalty from Contractor

Mumbai: A road contractor has dragged Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in the country, to arbitration for terminating the contract. The BJP has alleged that the BMC has failed to recover Rs 64 crore penalty from the contractor and demanded that it appoint special counsel in the arbitration case.

The BMC had awarded Rs 1,687-crore contract of concretisation of 212 roads in the island city to Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIIL). Due to extreme delay in works, the then civic chief and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal, taking a strong action, terminated the contract on November 8 last year, while the fine of Rs 64.60 crore was levied in December.

According to former BJP corporator Makarand Narwekar, orders for terminating the contract and recovering the penalty were given in Jan 2024 but BMC has failed to recover the penalty even after five months.

“The BMC order stated that the penalty dues must be paid within 30 days. However, despite the passage of five months, the contractor has not paid any penalty dues,” he said.

Narwekar has claimed that only 25 per cent CC road works are complete till now. He has asked the present BMC chief Bhushan Gagrani to appoint special counsel in the arbitration case and publish a status report on CC road works by June 1.

A senior BMC official said that the BMC will make all possible efforts to recover the fine. “The contractor’s contract deposit will be forfeited, while the bank guarantee submitted by them as earnest money deposit (EMD) for the fresh tender has not been released yet and is proposed to be forfeited,” he said.