Upkeep cost of BBMP's new compactors more than their price

Supplier to get Rs 9.62 cr for maintaining as many as 25 vehicles costing Rs 8.88 cr

This one is of the strange-but-true deals. The maintenance charges of the 25 compactors that the BBMP rolled out on Wednesday are set to be higher than their actual price, totalling Rs 8.88 crore. After the purchase, Palike entered into an agreement with the supplier firm for its maintenance. In the next five years, the BBMP will spend Rs 9.62 crore for their maintenance.

A senior BBMP officer said, “The maintenance does not include fuel charges. The Palike will provide diesel. The rest of the expenditure such as vehicle servicing and salaries of the drivers will be taken care of by the supplier firm.”

A Palike handout too confirms the deal. It says the BBMP will pay Rs 1.93 crore annually for the maintenance of these vehicles and in five years, the expenses will be Rs 9.62 crore.

The handout says that each vehicle costs Rs 35.5 lakh, whereas the maintenance cost for each vehicle is Rs 38.5 lakh. These two put together, each vehicle costs Rs 74 lakh.

Justifying the purchase, BBMP Commissioner G Kumar Naik said this was the best deal BBMP could have ever got.

Naik said, “The maintenance cost may attract your attention. But the task that the compactors perform will require so much expenditure. We had floated tenders through the e-procurement portal and three to four firms had showed interest. Among them, this was the best deal.”

He said even though the contractors participating in the garbage disposal tender come with their men and machines, Palike will still require 225 vehicles, of which the first lot came on Wednesday.

BJP leader sees scam
BJP leader and former deputy mayor S Harish calls it a compactor scam. “No sane person will pay maintenance charges higher than the cost of the vehicle. This is nothing but a deliberate attempt to siphon off public money,” he said.

Harish sought to know, “For whom is the BBMP buying these vehicles when the contractors are supposed to come with their own vehicles and manpower?”The BJP leader claimed that the purchase is a means to siphon off Central grants of Rs 73 crore under the Clean India Campaign that the BBMP received recently.