BMC chief, corporators spar over bungalow repairs

Congress and BJP say BMC has its priorities wrong, and that during a time of cost-cutting, spending Rs 40 lakh on renovating the bungalow is not acceptable.

Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Friday courted controversy over repairs and purchase of furniture worth Rs 40 lakh for his official bungalow on Carmichael Road, Malabar Hill. According to BMC officials, a tender worth Rs 40 lakh – called ‘Internal Repairs and Furniture Work of the Heritage Bungalow of the Municipal Commissioner’ – was floated earlier this week.

Chahal took over the BMC’s affairs in May this year after his predecessor Praveen Pardeshi was shunted out by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The work includes repairs of the toilet block, internal plumbing, false ceiling and furniture work. These are routine works. Since this is a heritage bungalow and is very old, repairs are required frequently and they cost more,” a civic official said.

BJP corporator Vinod Mishra, the party’s leader in the BMC, criticised the decision. “At a time when there is massive cost-cutting going on in all BMC departments, this kind of spending is not acceptable,” he said. “There are several other issues, like flooding, waterlogging and poor roads.”

Mishra said the BMC has had to cut its budget by Rs 2,500 crore following the lockdown. “But they want to spend this kind of money on buying furniture for the municipal commissioner’s bungalow? We have asked Mayor Kishori Pednekar to step in and stop this misuse of public money.”


Mishra has written to Chahal and Pednekar asking them to scrap the tender.

Congress corporator Ravi Raja, the opposition leader in the BMC, said the municipality had already spent around Rs 1.5 crore on renovating the bungalow in the past three-four years. “The previous MC only stayed there for 10 months. How can the condition of the bungalow deteriorate so much in 10 months?” Raja said.

In 2016, an RTI query revealed that the BMC had spent more than Rs 97 lakh on the maintenance of the bungalow between 2011 and 2016.

Chahal said the bungalow was in a dilapidated condition. “The entire roof of the bungalow is covered with plastic sheets held by bamboo sticks. There are water leakages at several places, almost in all the rooms. Anyone is free to visit the bungalow and decide if repairs are necessary or not,” he said.