Contractors cheated civic body of Rs 1,000 cr: NGO

“Due to the non-availability of river sand, the contractors are using M-sand from 2017. The Corporation, however, continued to pay the contractors comparing their quotes with that of river sand market rates instead of M-sand. This caused a huge loss to the civic body,” a statement from ArapporIyakkam stated.

It also pointed out that the market rate of Readymix M30 component including delivery at site, labour, curing, finishing and other charges is only Rs 5,500 per cubic metre without GST. “But the contractors quoted around Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000 without GST for this component in most of the tenders from 2017.”

The NGO estimated that the Corporation lost around Rs 1,000 crore in the last three years because ofthis practice.

Meanwhile, Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash clarified that the allegations are false.

“The estimation and costing are done by a certain method as approved by the rules and regulations. The base rate we use is as per the schedule of rates of public works department and highways department,” he said.