BMC denies fraud charges in Mumbai coastal road project

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 7 : The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday denied charges of irregularities and fraud in the development of ambitious Mumbai coastal road project.
''No fraud or irregularities have been committed in the Coastal Road Project undertaken by the BMC. The allegations circulating in this regard are baseless and incorrect. BMC strongly denies all the allegations,'' the civic body said in its statement.
BMC has said that all payments due to the contractors are done by following due procedure as per the recommendation of Project Management Consultants. As such no payment has been done to the contractors without doing the work.
"The DPR was prepared by M/s. Stup and E.Y. The draft DPR was published on MCGM website in 2015. The DPR was finalized by M/s. Stup and E.Y. and has been peer reviewed by M/s. Frishmann Prabhu. The traffic analysis was done in the said DPR. This was also submitted to MCZMA / MOEF & CC," it said.
It added that in no case the open space shall be used for any development/residential/commercial purpose.
According to BMC, the committee for the rehabilitation and resettlement of fisherfolks has already been constituted under the Chairmanship of AMC (ES). The working group of BMC is also formed to interact with the fisherfolks and a number of meetings have taken place with the fisherfolks. It has appointed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and they have started their work.
"The Supreme Court of India vide order dated December 17, 2019, and dated October 7, 2020, has allowed it to carry out the reclamation, build the road and secure the road for the Coastal Road Project. The development of about 70 hectares as green space to be used as parks, cycle tracks, butterfly park, etc will be developed after Supreme Court allows the development thereon," it added.
Further, BMC said since the work of Coastal Road is in progress and the planning for the landscaping plan is now at a preliminary stage. A preliminary plan has been prepared by the General Consultant and the same is in the process of approval. The actual implementation of landscaping in green open space will get materialized only after the permission of the Supreme Court of India.
BJP MLA Ashish Shelar had made allegations on BMC over the irregularities in the coastal road project.
Talking to the media Shelar had said, "The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has questioned the costal road project and this gives a sense that there is corruption in the costal road project, in the past also I have raised the issue undue advantage has been given to the consultants and contractors.
Shelar said that this is a dream project for Mumbai and why such irregularities have occurred must be inquired, the cost of the project has jumped due to these irregularities.