Thane: In an RTI inquiry filed by Swapnil Mahindrakar, Thane Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president of public welfare and law department has been revealed that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has paid contractor Rs 2 crore 65 lakh out of 4 crore without the completion of work for providing global positioning system (GPS) on the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) buses of the transport undertaking to enable the passengers to arrive at the bus stop on time.
Earlier in 2016, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) decided to implement the ITS (Intelligent Transport Management System) project under the Smart City scheme to provide GPS systems on the buses of the transport undertaking to enable the passengers to arrive at the bus stop on time. Apart from this, the GPS system installed in the bus has become obsolete and 68 LED monitors worth Rs 23 lakh installed at the bus stops have gone missing.
The Thane civic body awarded the work to KPMG Advisory Services and the work order was given to the company on June 30, 2016. The work was expected to cost at Rs 4 crore 7 lakh. A GPS system was to be installed on 220 buses and a control room was to be set up for the same. In addition, the 'Where Is My Bus' app was to be launched along with the installation of LEDs at bus stops to inform the passengers about the exact time of the bus. The work was to be completed in three years. In the first phase, 50 buses were fitted with GPS system and Where is My Bus app was launched.
A control room was set up at the depot in Nilkanth area of Vartaknagar. Although the work of this project was not completed on time, the civic body paid Rs. 2 crore 65 lakhs to the contractor.
Swapnil Mahindrakar, city president of MNS's public welfare and law department, has revealed the TMC scam through RTI and while speaking with FPJ correspondent said, " As of now both GPS system and the Where Is My Bus app are not working. The contractor have informed the civic body that the GPS system installed in the bus has expired. As a result the TMC has given Rs 2 crore 65 lakh without work completion In addition, 107 LED monitors were installed at various TMT stations in the city. The contractor has also informed the municipality that 68 monitors worth Rs 23 lakh have gone missing. Despite the disappearance of the TMC material, the administration does not seem to have noticed it."
Mahindrakar further added, "The Thane civic body was not in the mood to start the project even after it was revealed that a scam of Rs. 2 crore 65 lakh has been taken place. We have written to the police to enquire into the matter and the police are now initiating to take the statements of all the officials involved."
Balchandra Behre, Manager, Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) said, "The intelligent transport management system (ITMS) project is being implemented for Thane Transport buses. Although the project, which is being implemented under the Smart City scheme, has not been fully started, some work on the project is underway."
