Tainted contractors bag road works again
In a bid to avoid repeating mistakes in the post monsoon road repair work, the civic body officials will be more vigilant this time since the contractors implicated in the recent road scam have been reassigned by the civic body for the repair work which starts next month.
As tainted contractors get on the city roads for a revamp, a senior official from the roads department said, “We are ordered by the top brass to give special attention on contractors that are accused for the previous road scam.”
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s infamous roads repair scam worth Rs 352 crore was uncovered last year when the city’s civic chief Ajoy Mehta ordered a probe into the shoddy road work across the city following a complaint from Mayor Snehal Ambekar. However, the civic body has cleared that the contract for this year’s road work was given to the tainted contractors before they were implicated in the scam. The six accused contractors in the road repair scam are Mahavir Road Infrastructure, KR Construction, Jay Kumar Infra, Relcon Infraprojects, RPS Infraprojects and RK Madhani.
Some of the roads given to these tainted contractors include August Kranti Road, Jayshankar Yagnik road, Javji Dadaji Marg, Tardeo road, Balaram street, Khetwadi road, Acharya Donde road, G D Ambekar road, Tokarshi Jivraj road, Sai Baba road, Jerbai Waia Road, M A road, B A road, road no 32 in Sion, N C Kelkar Marg V N Purav Marg and R.C Marg.
All these contracts have been given to RPS Infraprojects, RK Madhani and Mahavir Infrastructure.
The civic body might delay the road work due to unexpected rain in the last week of September. Also the roads department is awaiting the required permissions from the traffic department. But sources in MCGM said that the permissions will arrive by the end of September.
A senior civic official confirmed saying, “The road repair work which will start from October 1, 2016 might be delayed due to the heavy rains in the last week of September. Also, for some roads we have got the permission while for some we are still awaiting the permission from the traffic department. We are optimistic that we would get the required permission till 30thSeptember. We are hoping that the rains stop before October since we would not be able to start the repair work unless the rain stops. If we are unable to start the work by October 1, then we will start by October 10.”