LED scam: NMC cleared bid 80% over cost estimate

Nagpur: More skeletons are likely to tumble out of the closet in the LED lamp purchase scam. TOI has accessed more documents proving NMC electricity department’s complicity in framing terms and conditions in the tender documents, allegedly to favour contractors.
In one case, the lowest bid was 80% above the estimate while another one was 70% more. Such high bids were cleared by the civic administration as well as NMC standing committee in 2016. No efforts were made to negotiate with the bidders.

Senior Congress corporator Sandip Sahare has questioned how the standing committee passed the proposal when the department proposed to pay 80% above the estimated cost. It is complete loot of taxpayers’ money, he said, adding he will be meeting mayor Nanda Jichkar in a couple of days to demand a high-level inquiry into the ‘scam’.

Currently, mayor Nanda Jichkar is in Montreal, Canada, to attend a three-day International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) World Congress. ICLEI is an international organization of local governments, and national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development.

Sahare said the cost of other lights, like flood lights of various wattage too were quoted higher than the market rates. Citing an example, he said NMC is procuring 100 watt floodlights for Rs26,880 while they are available in the open market for Rs6,000.

According to him, the department implementing the LED street light project, whose main objective was to save power consumption amounting to crores of taxpayers money, is yet to submit any information about the amount of electricity saved as a result of using the LEDs.

“The corporation will shell out Rs470 crore for the project claiming that it would save energy. However, till date it has not conducted audit of even a single stretch on the savings, though the department is claiming that it has installed 33,000 LEDs,” Sahare said. The deadline to replace all 1.38 lakh street lights is December 2018.