After rejecting it twice, civic body allots cement road works to co close to minister

Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) standing committee had twice rejected proposals to give work order of two packages worth Rs29.15 crore in the cement concrete road project-II to Kamptee-based Abhi Engineering. Then, suddenly, the committee dumped its decisions and recently approved the work orders. Sources said this came about because the company is close to a minister.
The standing committee had first taken the decision not to give work orders to the private company on February 29 and then again on June 27. But the committee approved the work orders on September 12.
The projects department issued a letter of intent to the private company a couple of days ago. Now, NMC will enter into an agreement with the private company to execute the two packages, which are part of the Rs324 crore cement concrete road project-II.
NMC sources told TOI that the administration did not implement the standing committee’s first two decisions to reject the work orders and go for re-tendering since the company is said to be close to a minister. “The standing committee had even directed short tendering to ensure speedy completion of process and execution of works. But, the administration kept on pursuing the case over seven months,” sources said.
They added there was a cold war between mayor Pravin Datke and the minister over this company. “Datke knew the company was not qualified for the cement concrete road works. He asked the standing committee not to approve the work orders. He remained firm on the decision even after he received a call from the minister to consider the company,” the sources said.
However, the projects department had made a technical mistake in the case. It had opened the financial bid of the private company, when it should have disqualified the company in the technical bid itself. The concerned minister approached another senior minister and argued this point. “Then Datke had to relent and gave the green signal to the standing committee,” sources said.
To save face, the standing committee appointed a subcommittee to verify the private company’s works and submit a report. The committee comprised all NMC officials, who submitted a report in favour of the private company.
Another bidder for the works had also lodged a complaint against Abhi Engineering, but that too was set aside.
Datke told TOI he had received some complaints, so he asked the standing committee to verify details of the company. “Now, the administration has cleared the points raised by the standing committee. We have to ensure speedy execution and completion of the project,” he said.
Standing committee chairman Sudhir Raut said the decision to approve work orders was taken as per the committee’s recommendation. However, he did not explain why the standing committee went back on its two earlier resolutions.
Ajju Vijayvargiya of Abhi Engineering first spoke to TOI in detail about the case, but later refused to be quoted in this story.
The private company will now execute the package-I of Rs11.69 crore covering South Ambazari Road from Rahate Colony T-point to Mate Square and package-II worth Rs17.46 crore from Mate Square to Ambazari Lake T-point, Mangalmurti Square to Shitlamata Mandir and RPTS Road from Madhav Nagar Square to WHC Road.
Executive engineers to speed up project
The delay in execution of Rs324 crore cement concrete road project-II has forced NMC to appoint four executive engineers just to oversee the project. For this, the civic body has abandoned its first-of-its-kind plan to appoint an executive engineer for each of the 10 zones.
Earlier, one executive engineer used to look after civil works of two-three zones. Other executive engineers used to head departments like estate, traffic, projects, water, hot mix etc. To ensure proper and timely works, NMC had appointed one executive engineer for each zone a few months ago, for the first time in history.
A couple of days ago, NMC appointed four executive engineers — Mahesh Gupta, MG Kukreja, Narendra Borkar and MH Talewar — specially for the cement roads project and relieved them from the zones. They also have charges of their departments.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced the cement roads project in December 2014. NMC is yet to issue work orders for all packages in the project. Also, CM has already approved project III worth Rs300 crore for NMC.