Karnataka Opposition Slams Govt For Costly Road Sweeper Rental Deal Under GBA

Bengaluru: The government decision to issue administration approval for the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to outsource road sweeping through renting sweeping machines at a cost of $ 613 crore for the next seven years has kicked up a controversy.

Since the GBA floated a tender for renting 46 mechanical road sweeping machines, to clean roads in five municipal corporations coming under GBA, the opposition parties were up in arms.

Quoting the Union Government's e-marketplace portal, the opposition BJP and JD(S) had contended that each vehicle was available for purchase for ₹ 2.5 crore in public. Even if the government purchased vehicles, it would have cost less than ₹ 120 crore. When such was the case, what was the logic behind renting the vehicles for a whopping ₹ 613 crore for a period of seven years?

JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy said that the government had ignored the recommendation by the Boston Consulting Group, which had recommended the government to purchase the vehicles, instead of renting them. The cost of cleaning had been fixed at ₹ 894.3 per km and each year, it would be increased by 5%, The entire calculation behind the decision was illogical, he said.

Both BJP and JD(S) alleged huge kickbacks behind the deal as there was no logical answer for renting these vehicles by paying such a high amount. GBA officials said that in total, 46 machines will cover 1688 kms of roads. They will sweep and clean the arterial and sub-arterial roads where there is high traffic density. The decision was taken as there was a safety concern for pourakarmikas.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also in charge of Bengaluru dismissed the opposition allegations and dared them to lodge a complaint with Lokayukta.