BBMP's flood project tenders scrapped over graft allegations

Bengaluru: Irregularities in the tendering process and corruption allegations have led the Karnataka government to abruptly scrap about 16 tenders related to Bengaluru’s multi-crore flood mitigation project funded by the World Bank. 

The government issued the orders on July 28, following a recommendation from the committee led by Uma Mahadevan, additional chief secretary of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department. The committee reportedly uncovered significant lapses in the tender documents, which prompted the “unusual” decision. 

In its order, the Urban Development department (UDD) directed the BBMP to float fresh tenders for the Rs 2,000-crore project and also warned that there should not be any discrepancies in the tendering process.  

Last month, the government had formed the committee just after the BBMP completed the process of selecting the contractors.

Before that, RR Nagar MLA Munirathna N had filed a complaint with Governor Thawaarchand Gehlot, alleging irregularities in the World Bank funded project. He had also accused his political rival Deputy CM DK Shivakumar of taking kickbacks from contractors. Shivakumar had denied the allegations.

In its report dated July 22, the committee noted that the BBMP did not fully adhere to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act and pointed to lapses by BBMP engineers.

It recommended strict compliance with procurement regulations and directed the civic body to work more closely with World Bank officials, particularly while making changes to project plans or processes.

The committee also instructed the civic body to improve its digital systems, expressing dissatisfaction with the way BBMP maintained its files and records internally.

The exact nature of the discrepancies remains unclear. Some sources suggest that the eligibility criteria varied across the 16 tender packages, while others note that the project duration was reduced to 12 months from the standard 24 months, which could compromise the quality of construction.

Some of the works, proposed to mitigate flood-like situations in Bengaluru, include remodelling 173 kilometres of storm water drains by building cement walls on both sides and constructing sluice gates near lakes. 

BBMP Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao confirmed that the government has asked the civic body to re-tender World Bank-funded works.