Mumbai: Cheaper South Korean offer for STP gets thumbs-up – Times of India

MUMBAI: Accepting a much cheaper South Korean technology, the BMC has cleared the tender and awarded the letter of intent (LoI) for the sewage treatment pant (STP) at Bhandup.
With a company bidding around 53% below the BMC estimates and offering to construct the STP at just Rs 1,170 crore using a new technology, the BMC had sent a team of officials and engineers to South Korea to study its feasibility.
Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the BMC had accepted the South Korean technology and that the LoI for the STP was issued for construction using the Constant Level and Continuous Flow Sequential Batch Reactor (CSBR) technology for the plant.
Even as the Congress moved the Supreme Court alleging cost escalation in the BMC tenders for STPs, the BMC last month issued work orders for six out of its seven STP plants. The seven plants in all will cost the BMC close to Rs 26,000 crore, and it will be one of the biggest projects undertaken by the BMC in terms of cost.
The BMC had kept back the work order for only the Bhandup STP projects. The BMC wants to construct seven STPs at Worli, Bandra, Dharavi, Versova, Malad, Ghatkopar and Bhandup with a capacity to treat 2,464 million litres of sewage daily (MLD) under the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project-2 (MSDP-2).
While the bids for most of the STP were closer to the BMC estimates, the bid for Bhandup was 53.88% below the estimate and officials were then sent to South Korea to verify if the CSBR technology could work and if the project could be executed at such a low cost.
Congress politician Ravi Raja said that the BMC should now use the CSBR technology for the other six STPs too. “We have already moved the SC and the next hearing is on July 19. We will apprise the SC that this 53% cheaper technology can work and should be used for all STPs. We have requested the SC to appoint a national-level expert committee to verify the BMC’s costs. If CSBR technology is used for all STPs, the BMC will save Rs 10,000 crore. The BMC has issued the work orders in a hurry even when we have filed an intervention application in the SC and our plea has been accepted. The issuing of work orders seems to be unethical at this juncture. There was no transparency in the tenders since some bids were at par with the estimates while there are bids like for the Bhandup STP that are over 50% below the BMC’s estimates,” Raja said.
JWIL-OMIL-SPML, a joint venture (JV) of companies, had turned up as the lowest bidder for the Bhandup STP. “The BMC’s estimated cost was Rs 2536.98 crore but the company offered to do the job at Rs 1170 crore, which is 53.88% below the estimate,” said an official.