Poor decisions put state’s AMRUT plans in a quandary
Aswin J Kumar | tnn | Mar 28, 2019, 04:14 IST
Thiruvananthapuram: A series of bad decisions coupled with choices regarding consultancy have botched up the implementation of AMRUT scheme worth Rs 2,359 crore in the state.
With the project set to wind up by March 2020, city mission management units (CMMU) are now striving to better the embarrassing figures of AMRUT projects.
In eight out of nine AMRUT cities, DPR (detailed project report) consultancy for sewerage and septage projects went to a single firm—Kozhikode-based Ram Biologicals. Sewerage and septage projects come under priority sector and occupy second major volume of the total outlay (Rs 629 crore for 49 projects out of Rs 2,357 crore).
Ram Biologicals has bagged 23 main projects—70% of which are sewerage network plans— to the tune of Rs 426 crore. The fee for the consultants ranges from 1 to 2.33 percentage of estimate and varies from project to project.
What is more curious is that Ram Biologicals deals with compost plants, aerobic bins, bio-bins and kitchen bins; components that are hardly a part of AMRUT.
The Suchitwa Mission has empanelled Ram biologicals for aerobic bins and compost plants. The Suchitwa mission list has a total of 127 empanelled agencies, which also include firms with expertise in areas under DPR for sewage, septage and liquid waste management.
An inspection of the minutes of the state level technical committee (SLTC) showed that details regarding selection of DPR consultants for sewerage and septage schemes do not figure in it. This is in stark contrast to the process of selection of consultants for DPR preparation of green spaces and parks, which has been properly documented in the minutes.
An official said that the firm swept through contracts for almost all AMRUT cities by just claiming experience of having worked from one AMRUT city to another.
“The firm doesn't have any experience in sewerage network projects which also greatly hampered issuing technical sanction, tendering and awarding the projects of these sectors so far”, said the official.
While Centre has been keen on sewerage schemes, there had been no takers for tenders under sewage component in many of the municipalities.
TOI could confirm that majority had gone for re-tender. The total expenditure as on date is Rs 20.68 crore out of Rs 629.87 crores which is just 3.22% and that also under KWA projects alone.
Consultants were hired half way through the project for preparation of DPR instead of project development and management consultants (as laid down by AMRUT guidelines).
Later, in 2017, guidelines were ignored and SLTC decided to hire empanelled agencies as project consultants as per the direction of chairman of SLTC.
The SLTC also waived EMD or performance guarantee for consultants, arguing that they have already been empanelled. This has weakened the position of government as the firm is free to discontinue its service any moment and government does not have any monetary guarantee to hold back the firm.
AMRUT mission director R Girija didn’t respond to a set of questions on this regard.
With the project set to wind up by March 2020, city mission management units (CMMU) are now striving to better the embarrassing figures of AMRUT projects.
In eight out of nine AMRUT cities, DPR (detailed project report) consultancy for sewerage and septage projects went to a single firm—Kozhikode-based Ram Biologicals. Sewerage and septage projects come under priority sector and occupy second major volume of the total outlay (Rs 629 crore for 49 projects out of Rs 2,357 crore).
Ram Biologicals has bagged 23 main projects—70% of which are sewerage network plans— to the tune of Rs 426 crore. The fee for the consultants ranges from 1 to 2.33 percentage of estimate and varies from project to project.
What is more curious is that Ram Biologicals deals with compost plants, aerobic bins, bio-bins and kitchen bins; components that are hardly a part of AMRUT.
The Suchitwa Mission has empanelled Ram biologicals for aerobic bins and compost plants. The Suchitwa mission list has a total of 127 empanelled agencies, which also include firms with expertise in areas under DPR for sewage, septage and liquid waste management.
An inspection of the minutes of the state level technical committee (SLTC) showed that details regarding selection of DPR consultants for sewerage and septage schemes do not figure in it. This is in stark contrast to the process of selection of consultants for DPR preparation of green spaces and parks, which has been properly documented in the minutes.
An official said that the firm swept through contracts for almost all AMRUT cities by just claiming experience of having worked from one AMRUT city to another.
“The firm doesn't have any experience in sewerage network projects which also greatly hampered issuing technical sanction, tendering and awarding the projects of these sectors so far”, said the official.
While Centre has been keen on sewerage schemes, there had been no takers for tenders under sewage component in many of the municipalities.
TOI could confirm that majority had gone for re-tender. The total expenditure as on date is Rs 20.68 crore out of Rs 629.87 crores which is just 3.22% and that also under KWA projects alone.
Consultants were hired half way through the project for preparation of DPR instead of project development and management consultants (as laid down by AMRUT guidelines).
Later, in 2017, guidelines were ignored and SLTC decided to hire empanelled agencies as project consultants as per the direction of chairman of SLTC.
The SLTC also waived EMD or performance guarantee for consultants, arguing that they have already been empanelled. This has weakened the position of government as the firm is free to discontinue its service any moment and government does not have any monetary guarantee to hold back the firm.
AMRUT mission director R Girija didn’t respond to a set of questions on this regard.
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