JOIN USIt will also spend Rs six crore to transport the stone for the ‘Veeragallu’ from Devanahalli to the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park where the war memorial (National Military Memorial) is coming up.
The BDA’s extravagance has shot up the project cost from Rs 12 crore to Rs 17 crore — an increase of 45 per cent. An RTI query by the president of Jayaprakashnarayan Vichara Vedike, B M Shivakumar, revealed that the BDA has given the contract for chiselling the design on an 80- foot tall Veeragallu (Bravery Stone) for Rs 94 lakh to Ashok Gudigar of Bidadi in Ramanagar district.
Gudigar was to pay a security deposit of Rs 4.7 lakh to the BDA within 20 days of the receipt of the letter of acceptance. Shivakumar said the contractor had agreed to pay a bank guarantee for the sum.
What was shocking, Shivakumar said, was the BDA agreeing to pay ABC India Private Limited Rs 5.89 crore for transporting the stone for the Veeragallu that would be procured at no cost from the government quarry at Devanahalli.
“This alone has increased the cost of the project by almost 45 per cent,” Shivakumar said.
Other expenditures on civil work include Rs 4.4 crore for a museum, Rs 82 lakh for the memorial pathway, Rs 18 lakh for a flagpost, Rs 63 lakh for an amphitheatre, Rs 8 lakh for IA Block, Rs 7 lakh for IAF Block, Rs 46 lakh for INS Block, R 90 lakh for miscellaneous work, Rs 20 lakh for irrigation, Rs 37.3 lakh for water feature, Rs 42 lakh for HVAC, Rs 1.01 crore for landscape, Rs 50 lakh for plumbing and sanitary work, and Rs 1.55 crore for electrical work.
Besides, “miscellaneous and round-off” work out to Rs 3.7 lakh, the RTI activist said.