PIL says blacklisted firm readied DPR  on steel flyover

Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), which has filed a PIL in the high court against the proposed steel flyover, has stated in its additional affidavit that a company blacklisted in many states was hired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) for the steel flyover.

The affidavit states that STUP Consultants Private Limited has been blacklisted in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rajkot (Gujarat). The Kannur International Airport Limited had scrapped the agreement it had signed with STUP.  Despite all these, the BDA had failed to clarify why it hired STUP to prepare the DPR.

The NBF has also stated that the BDA had failed to provide information on what restrained it from considering tax implications in the project. This is a serious lapse, as the argument for the hike in the project cost seems to have been attributed to the increase in tax. This factor was not considered at the time of initial estimates and this fact alone discloses the ‘lackadaisical’ approach adopted by the BDA in handling critical aspects of an infrastructure project of this nature, it contended. 

The NBF said the BDA has arbitrarily calculated the VAT (value added tax). In a document, the BDA has said that it has calculated the VAT on raw steel and not on fabricated steel which has led to a difference of 9.5% in VAT calculation.

The BDA has not given any explanation as to why, at the first instance the VAT was calculated on raw steel and not on fabricated steel, the rate that is compounded to ascertain the present cost. 

The affidavit says that decision pertaining to the financial aspects of the project has been taken in an ‘opaque’ manner and the BDA ‘does not afford to respond’ to why it did not consider tax implication during the computation of the initial estimates. The BDA failed to explain the apparent contradiction in the initial and final estimates on computation of VAT on the steel to be used.

The NBF has also said that BDA has not taken the approval of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee constituted under the Constitution of India, as the nodal agency for advising the state on aspect of spatial planning.