Shivani Thakur
Published on: May 20, 2022 at 18:28 IST
The BJP has alleged a scam in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Rs 160-crore tenders for construction and operation of a new tunnel laundry for washing garments from civic hospitals across Mumbai.
Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Sanjeev Kumar said, “I will ask the department to examine the issue.”
In letter to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal, Mihir Kotecha (BJP MLAs) said, “Parichay Department Store had bid 12% above the BMC’s estimates which escalated the cost to around Rs 174 crore”.
“The tender estimates has been inflated by double to Rs 160 crore. Estimates are based on washing capacity of 40,000 garments per day. The washing cost to BMC works to around Rs 17 per garment, which is double the cost we are paying presently to small laundries around the hospitals and at municipal laundry,” said Kotecha in his letter.
Kotecha alleged that, “They don’t have any experience running laundry machines/services. The tender pre-qualifications criteria has been specifically drafted in deviation to the Central Vigilance Commission norms.”
“The Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) Department, in nexus with contractors, relaxed the annual financial turnover criteria and accepted annual turnover of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) partners as their favored contractor do not have the required turnover”.