Demand to present 24x7 water plan in GB meeting

Pune: The estimate committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will discuss the new estimate of the 24x7 water supply project on Monday even as opposition members have demanded presentation of the project in the general body meeting.

Civic officials said the new estimate was ready and the committee will discuss it in detail. However, leader of opposition and NCP corporator Chetan Tupe and Congress leader Arvind Shinde have demanded that the civic administration must make a detailed presentation about the project and new estimates at the GB meeting.

In August this year, the PMC administration scrapped the 24x7 water supply project, for which the civic body had raised money by floating bonds in the stock market. Tender worth Rs 2,322 crore was mired in controversy after opposition leaders and a faction of the ruling BJP alleged that top civic officers had "fixed" the tender to favour select bidders.

"It seems that the new estimate of project cost is less compared to the earlier estimate on the basis of which tenders were floated. The civic administration must explain the reason for this. The civic body is going to save about Rs 300 crore because of new estimate of the project cost. It means that the earlier estimate was inflated," Congress's Shinde said.

NCP's Tupe said the state had specifically asked the civic administration to take elected representatives into confidence while implementing the project and, hence, the civic administration and the ruling BJP must be open for a dialogue on the project. City BJP leaders and the civic administration have preferred to remain mum on the demand.