Rs 800 crore irregularities: CBI books ex-officials of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a case against former officials of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and from private companies based in Mumbai and Chennai for alleged irregularities of Rs 800 crore aimed at deepening shipping channels near Mumbai.

The CBI registered the case on 18 June. The investigations are still ongoing.

In its FIR, the CBI has booked the then chief engineer of JNPT Sunil, Kumar Madabhavi the then project director of Tata Consulting Engineers, Devdutt Bose Boskalis Smit India LLP, Jan De Nul Dredging India Pvt Ltd and other unidentified public servants under IPC Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

“The then Chief Manager, (PP WD) of JNPT and private persons/entities on allegation that criminal conspiracy was hatched amongst JNPA officials and private persons/entities, which caused a loss of over Rs 800 crores to JNPA in contracts awarded to a consortium of Mumbai based private company and another Chennai based private company under a capital dredging project for increasing the depth of navigational channel to facilitate entry of vessels to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Nhava Sheva,” officials said.

It was alleged that during the maintenance of dredged channels in Phase-I of the project, JNPA made excess payments aggregating to Rs 365.90 crore to the contractors against claims raised for over dredging of channels.

However, in Phase-II of the project, which overlapped with the maintenance period of Phase-I, JNPT made an additional excess payment of Rs 438 crores to the contractor, showing that no over dredging was done in Phase-I or maintenance period thereof.

“Searches were conducted at residential premises of officers of JNPA and consulting company and offices of accused private companies at 5 places in Mumbai and Chennai which led to recovery of a number of documents relating to the Capital Dredging Project, digital devices and documents showing investments made by public servants. The documents recovered are being examined,” officials said.