News Analysis India

Tag: Mumbai coastal road project

  • Maharashtra BJP leader alleges Rs 1,000 crore scam in Mumbai’s coastal road project

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP leader and MLA Ashish Shelar on Monday alleged Rs 1000 crore scam in Mumbai’s coastal road project.

    Shelar asked CM Uddhav Thackeray to probe the scam by forming a special investigation team (SIT). The coastal road project is being carried out by the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Neither Sena nor the BMC has reacted to these allegations so far.

    Shelar alleged that Sena had a role in the. The MLA said Sena was involved in the scam by committing financial misappropriation while executing the project from October 2018 to December 2020.

    “I am confident that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will immediately take note of these corruption charges. It is now clear that one of the most important projects to congest traffic jams has been plagued by financial malpractice and corruption. It is unfortunate that Mumbaikars will have to bear huge losses. I have also given such a letter to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal,” Advocate Shelar said.

    “Was the scam done with the consent of the BMC’s Standing Committee?” he asked.

    In a letter, Shelar stated: “The contractor company has embezzled Rs 437 crore from the Government of Maharashtra as the stones and materials required for filling in Phase I of the Coastal Road were picked up from other places without being licensed by the government. Who took this decision? Besides, the Rs 81.22 crore penalty imposed by the Maharashtra Police Transport Department for illegal and overloaded transport by the Coastal Road contractors while transporting the filler material was not yet paid? We also have information that 35,000 fraudulent rounds of stone material carrying vehicles have been shown to extract money by showing work on paper only,” reads the letter.

    It further reads that the substandard materials supplied by the contractors have been used in this ambitious project. “The bogus materials also washed away in rain. Did the contractors get any tacit political support? With whose blessing was this whole thing started? Where has this money been diverted through by depriving the government of its revenue? The investigation through SIT will answer all these questions,” Shelar said.

  • BJP’s Ashish Shelar alleges Rs 1,000 crore ‘scam’ in Mumbai’s coastal road project

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Monday claimed there were financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in the Mumbai coastal road project and demanded an SIT probe into the matter.

    Addressing a press conference, he said the “scam’ took place between October, 2018 and December, 2020 and asked if the Shiv Sena, which controls the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, was party to alleged irregularities.

    “Has the scam happened with the blessings of the standing committee of the BMC? Was the Shiv Sena involved in it? The BJP will reveal the names of the contractors but the Sena must clear its stand first as the ruling party in the civic body,” Shelar said.

    Shelar said he had written to BMC commissioner IS Chahal on the issue and also demanded that a special investigation team (SIT) be formed to probe it.

    Meanwhile, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said Shelar must submit proof of his allegations, adding that it was just a strategy by the BJP to defame her party to defeat it in the civic polls.

    She said BJP corporators were also part of the BMC’s standing committee and Shelar should ask them what were they doing.