High bidding for de-silting work puts BMC in a fix

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's pre-monsoon de-silting operations are likely to take a hit with contractors jeopardising tenders once again. Contractors have either not responded to BMC's tenders for cleaning up the city's drains or bid too high. This is the second time that BMC is attempting to rope in contractors since they had bid as high as 300% over the corporation's estimates last month.

According to civic officials, only 20 out of 45 tenders have received responses. "Even in tenders where bids have come in, contractors have quoted high amounts. The bids are around 60-90% higher than estimate for minor drains and 14-70% higher for major drains. We had already relaxed tender conditions to ensure more bidders but it did not work," said a senior civic official.

In fresh tenders floated by the BMC, contractors had demanded close to a whopping Rs6,000 per ton to remove silt from the city's drains against BMC's estimate of Rs1,600 per ton. With the contractors quoting such rates, the BMC had scrapped the tenders once again and call for fresh ones.

All 24 contractors booked in the Rs150 crore de-silting scam were barred from bidding in the new tenders.

While the cost of tenders is pegged at Rs140 crore just like last year, the amount of silt the contractors will have to remove has been cut by around 60%. Despite the already high estimate, contractors have bid above the BMC estimate.

"The BMC must relax the tender conditions further so that new contractors get a chance. I had suggested that the BMC remove the conditions to have any prior experience of doing excavation also. De-silting is not a technical job, so any one can do it. Time is running out and the BMC must begin its pre-monsoon work soon," said Congress legislator Aslam Shaikh.

With contractors demanding high rates, the BMC may have to re-float the tenders for the third time. "We will call for a meeting of the tender committee and then negotiate with the bidders. If they don't agree to do the work at a reasonable rate, we will have no option but to re-float the tenders. Norms will be relaxed further," said LS Vhatkar, chief engineer, storm water drains department.

Shaikh had written to BMC chief Ajoy Mehta in this regard. "If the tender conditions are relaxed, close to 200 new contractors will be eligible. The rates will come down only then. The existing contractors have created a cartel and want to ensure that the BMC's tenders fail."