Contactors hike road costs after bagging orders
Property World Bureau
August 09, 2011
The
BMC, in three years from 2007-08 to 2009-10 , allowed contractors
who recently bagged a major roads contract to increase costs in 17
major projects by an average of 51.5 per cent. The projects,
executed and tendered separately , were originally pegged at a
total of Rs 292 crore, but the escalations were to the tune of Rs
150.43 crore, boosting the final project costs to Rs 442.43
crore.
An 18project, for a road from Worli Sea Face to Haji Ali, was
initially worth Rs 11 crore, but costs escalated by a whopping
627.3 per cent. The Rs 80-crore escalation sent the final project
cost to Rs 91 crore.
All the companies that executed these 18 projects are among the
nine that recently bagged a major Rs 550-crore tender to build and
upgrade 50 km of new roads in the city.