BMC junks Rs 50 crore tenders for open spaces’ maintenance over low bids

MUMBAI: The BMC last month scrapped tenders worth Rs 50 crore for the maintenance of more than 200 parks and gardens after contractors bid over 40% below estimated costs and allegedly attempted to create a cartel. The contractors have lost deposits totalling around Rs 50 lakh for bidding so much below estimates.

The BMC had floated 24 tenders for the maintenance of around 200 parks and gardens in its wards through a one-year contract. With the tenders scrapped, now several parks are without any full-time maintenance contractors. The decision to scrap the tenders and make contractors forfeit their deposits was taken by additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide.

“Since the contractors bid over 40% below estimates, we have told the contractors to forfeit the deposits and scrapped the tenders. New tenders will be floated next week and we will only go ahead with tenders of the bids that are closer to the estimates. There was no way contractors would have carried out maintenance work in a standard manner at such low costs,” said a senior civic official.
In all, the BMC has 1,052 open plots, together measuring 1,200 acre.
The BJP alleged the BMC had failed to break the cartel of contractors. “The BMC is now giving out short-term quotation contracts to the same companies at over 50% below the estimated costs. So, scrapping the tenders and then giving work to the same companies doesn’t make any sense. Those companies whose deposits have been forfeited must be barred from taking part in the new tenders. For almost a month, with no dedicated contractor for maintenance, these gardens used by thousands of residents are falling into disrepair,” said BJP corporator Vinod Mishra.
While usually the BMC floats tenders for a two-year contract, this year it had planned to give it out for only a year.
Municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal in his budget speech in February announced a new open spaces policy will be rolled out but it has not happened. NAGAR, an NGO that works on open spaces issues, has also written to Chahal expressing dismay over the 50% cut in the budget for parks and gardens.
The NGO has demanded that the BMC come out with a robust open spaces policy so as to reduce the financial burden on the BMC.
“The financial burden on the BMC will be lessened a fair amount by formulating a robust open spaces policy with watertight guidelines, including the checks and balances recommended by NAGAR to the Garden Department in August 2019. Many stakeholders and NGOs are keen to assume responsibility, both financial via CSR and restoration and maintenance, of these open spaces, provided there is a fair policy with at least a three year contract reviewed every year and renewable on good performance,” NAGAR Trustee Nayana Kathpalia had said in the letter to Chahal.
With the BMC’s old open spaces policy scrapped in 2016, NGOs and citizen groups have asked the BMC to fast-track the new policy.