In the upcoming civic standing committee meeting on Friday, the BMC is planning to introduce the proposal to increase the project management consultation (PMC) fee of the coastal road project by Rs 7.29 cr. Currently, the PMC fee is Rs 57.61 crore, which will increase to Rs 65 crore. The hike is meant for extra expert consultation to switch multi-pile technology to monopile, which experts, including those from IIT Bombay, say will help save money and time.
The BMC had appointed M/s Egis India Consulting Engineers Pvt Ltd and M/s Collin Groumit and Row (UK) Ltd as consultants for Package 2 from Baroda Palace to Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The consultation work had been given for 72 months.
M/s Hindustan Construction Company and HDC have a contract of construction. As of now, 35 per cent of work is complete. The contractors have suggested that instead of using multi-pile foundation technology, the BMC should permit monopile foundation. In the monopile technology, only one pile is required to support a pillar, whereas multiple piles are needed in the case of current technology.
Following this suggestion, the BMC had set up an expert committee wherein two members from IIT Bombay had agreed to the use of monopile construction technology. However, the existing PMC companies don’t have such knowledge, which will come from other international experts at an extra cost.
The BMC has also clarified that at the end of the project, the construction companies will return this amount to the BMC; however, the civic body will have to bear this consultation cost initially.
However, sources said the proposal would be difficult to get passed in the standing committee as the opposition has already objected to it.
Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Ravi Raja, the opposition leader of Congress in the BMC, said the civic body is spending too much money on consultation than actual construction. “Why did they not think when consultation work had been given to PMC,” he said, adding that such proposals should not be passed in the standing committee.
