70% Of Mumbai’s Street Furniture Items Overpriced, INR 263 Cr Scam Probe Reveals

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had set up a committee to investigate the scam of INR 263 crore street furniture work. It is alleged that nine out of the thirteen items bought weren’t of standard rates.

The investigation also found out that the prices of the nine items were fixed after getting an estimate quotation from the urban planners, and most of them were quoted as overpriced in comparison with the BMC’s schedule of rates of similar items.

Earlier in July 2023, the BMC ordered to stop the investigation in the case. It also issued an order to stop work and payment to the contractor Shantinath Roadways. These orders were passed as per CM Eknath Shinde’s instructions, after three MLAs Mihir Kotecha from BJP, Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UBT), and Rais Shaikh from Samajwadi Party claimed that there is a scam in the street furniture contract.

A civic official stated that nine out of 13 street furniture items were fair items, which means they were not included in the BMC's schedule of rates. Thackeray had written to the governor Ramesh Bais in May, appealing to him to order the state government to launch a Lokayukta investigation.

"Even after negotiating with the contractor, the rates for the glass fibre reinforced polymer benches, rectangular glass fibre reinforced polymer flower pots/planters, cylindrical and square sandblasted seats, cylindrical and square tree grates, and pigmented concrete finish dustbins seem to be extremely high," said a civic official.

This afternoon, I’ve raised the issue of the street furniture scam of the @mybmc of almost ₹260 crores.

Earlier, a ruling party MLA also had raised it via a letter, but the BMC administration seems to have the backing of the unconstitutional govt for corruption (1/n)

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) March 17, 2023

Aaditya Thackeray said, "A fair investigation, transparency, and accountability towards MLAs are required. Most significantly, it must be made clear whether the BMC has abandoned or postponed the plan."

According to Thackeray, the government's probe must be more specific and sufficient. "The payment already made to the contractor must be recovered, and no new work orders may be issued. I have asked the governor to direct BMC to furnish me with the documents I have sought regarding the scam and the payment already made to the contractor must be recovered and no further work orders must be given,” Thackeray added.

Replying to the allegations made by Aaditya Thackeray, BMC’s Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Harshad Kale, denied all the irregularities and stated that the work order was issued on March 23, and work started on April 1.

BJP’s Mihir Kotecha raised the issue in February. He had said in the legislative assembly that the government had decided to scrap the contract. But Chahal said that following instructions given by CM Shinde, BMC will set up an inquiry committee which will submit its report in a month.

“Once the report is received, a decision on whether or not to scrap the contract will be taken. For now, additional municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde has ordered to stop issuance of work orders, stop payments, not install the items received and stop further supply of the items,” Chahal had said to TOI.