Yediyur roads: 2 contractors lobbied for emergency whitetopping sans tender

BENGALURU: The proposal to push through the project to whitetop two roads in Yediyur ward without floating tenders was first made by two contractors who were initially slated to execute them. Yielding to criticism, BBMP on Monday decided to stop pushing for an exemption from floating tenders and decided to called for short-term ones under e-procurement norms.
According to documents accessed by TOI, contractors S Manjunath and Sathish R in their separate representations to the commissioner, contended that the condition of the two roads was so bad they had to be whitetopped on an emergency basis, and therefore, the work needed to be executed by bypassing procedure — without floating tenders.
While Manjunath was lobbying for work on the 1.1-km-long, 15-metre-wide road from 23rd Cross, National Cooperative Bank Road to the junction of 36th Cross and 4th Main (around Rs 7.3 crore), Sathish sought clearance for taking up work on the 1.2-km-long, 21-metre-wide road from Armugham Circle to the junction of 9th Main and 22nd Cross (Rs 7 crore).
The proposal to whitetop the two roads came as a huge surprise as the ruling BJP had not only raised questions about whitetopping work taken up during the previous Congress-JD(S) government’s tenure, but it had also scrapped all allocation for fresh works, barring Rs 50 crore.
Things took an unexpected turn when the CM, reportedly acting at a local BJP leader’s behest, showed interest in taking up whitetopping of two Yediyur roads. The argument was that they would be done at Rs 7 crore per km as against Rs 10 crore being spent by BBMP on other whitetopping projects.
The names of Manjunath and Sathish were presented even though neither had any experience in whitetopping roads. The BBMP commissioner was also told to speed up things by not floating tenders as the work needed to be completed within two months.
After examining the contractors’ representations submitted on September 21, commissioner Anil Kumar directed engineers to do an immediate follow-up as per the CM’s direction.
However, in the wake of the urban development department raising objections to the proposal and the controversy kicked up by the opposition over attempts to bypass transparency, BBMP on Monday decided to float short-term tenders for the project. The budget, too, was back at Rs 10 crore per km.