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Civic Panel Oks 375 Cr Road Plan Without Discussion

  • After holding back approval for over two weeks to allot contracts for over 500 minor roads worth Rs 375 crore on the plea that the proposal needed to be tweaked, the civic standing committee shocked all by passing it on Saturday within minutes and without any discussion.The move stands out even more starkly as the committee had accused the civic administration of malafide intentions as the proposal took 51 days to be tabled before it.The BMC admitted that the overall delay in approving the proposal would affect the project deadline.This comes after the standing committee withheld the approval to allot contracts for over 500 minor roads on the grounds that changes should be made in the proposal. However, no amendments had been made to the proposal that was tabled on Saturday.
  • The civic administration admitted that the delay will affect the timely completion of the project. Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta said, "We will have to bring the roads to a safe level before opening them to the public. There is no question of carrying out the work during the monsoon. We will stick to the May deadline." The work orders will be issued early next week. The work on minor roads is now expected to begin early January after the civic body gets the no-objection certificate from the traffic department.
  • Earlier, the standing committee members had accused the civic administration of malafide intentions as the proposal took 51 days to be tabled, which according to the corporators was an "act of omission". They were also opposed to the appointment of SGS Consultancy as the quality auditor on the grounds that Rs 550-crore major roads project was getting delayed due to the auditor. NCP group leader and standing committee member Niyaz Vanu had earlier said, "The consultancy does not have adequate staff to perform the auditor's role and have to depend on our staff to get the work done."Corporators had raised the red flag over the civic administration's decision to allot 15 roads to Carboncor. The contractors lobby has been protesting about the "back-door" entry of Carboncor. Contractors had also met members of the standing committee convincing them about the cons of getting Carboncor on board.

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