Mithi River Project 'Corruption': EOW Launches Probe Into Financial Irregularities, Summons Contractors

Probing the allegations of corruption related to the multi-crore Mithi river widening and desilting project, a special team of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has summoned three contractors. Each of them had reportedly received contracts worth between Rs30 crore to Rs40 crore. Summons have been sent to contractors Manish Kasliwala from Kailash Construction, Acube Design's Rishabh Jain and Shirish Rathod from Mandip Enterprises.

The issue of alleged financial irregularities in the project was first raised in the state legislative council by BJP leaders Pravin Darekar and Prasad Lad. Subsequently, the state government had assured the formation of a special investigation team to probe the matter.

Acting on the government's directives, Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and joint commissioner of police (EOW) Nishit Mishra formed a special team to conduct a detailed investigation.

The probe will primarily focus on identification of other contractors involved, if any, tracking the allocation and expenditure of funds, assessing the amount of silt removed from 2005 to 2023 and reviewing beautification works undertaken under the project.

The 11.84-km stretch of the Mithi river comes under the BMC jurisdiction and the other 6.8 km under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). As both the agencies follow different tendering processes, they have been asked to submit detailed documentation related to the project. However, the BMC has submitted incomplete records, according to police sources.