BMC

civic body

Juhu Beach Cleanliness Monitoring Committee

JBCMC

BJP legislator Ameet Satam

Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta

The contractor earlier penalised for not doing its job efficiently had emerged frontrunner.Juhu residents have finally won their battle against a tainted contractor over cleaning up the Juhu beach. After scrapping tenders in January this year, theon Thursday managed to oust a tainted contractor, and picked a new one to maintain the iconic beach.The tenders were drafted after taking suggestions and inputs from citizens and resident groups in June last year.In January, a brand new tender drawn up by citizens’ groups to clean Juhu beach was scrapped by the BMC, as a civic contractor, which was earlier penalised by thefor nonperformance, emerged as the frontrunner to bag the contract.It then called for fresh bids with relaxed tender conditions that would allow facility management and housekeeping firms to throw their hats in the ring, thus increasing competition and chances of fair play.The civic body had involved the citizens in the tender process to ensure that the beach remained clean 24/7. But the same contractor, which could not do its job efficiently, ending up at the top of the list defeated the purpose, triggering protests by the residents.“We have opened the tenders and a new contractor has been picked. The tainted contractor has been ousted and we even made sure that a contractor recently caught in the debris transport scam was also barred. We will have a new clean contractor for cleaning up Juhu beach,” said a senior civic official.According to BMC officials, M/s Guru Kripa, which currently holds the contract to clean the beach in joint venture with M/s TechnoTrade and was penalised on multiple occasions by the civic body for non-performance, remerged as the frontrunner to bag the new six-year contract, albeit with a different partner. M/s Technotrade was even blacklisted in the past.While M/s Guru Kripa’s contract is set to expire in May this year, it again qualified for the Rs 21-crore contract, this time in joint venture with Rishab Associates, as it submitted the lowest bid. Another firm, Spectron Engineers (P) Ltd, which had also entered the bid, had lost the tender to M/s Rishab Guru Kripa by a thin margin.However, the anomaly was detected by the residents on the BMC appointed), and local. Satam wrote to, demanding that the tender be scrapped to keep tainted contractors out.Following Satam’s letter, the tenders were nixed. “This is a big victory for all of us. It has been a long battle and we finally have a new contractor for Juhu beach. We are glad that due to our efforts tainted contractors have been kept out. They tried very hard to game the system but we have won. We will make sure that the beach is now cleaned as per the work order,” Satam said.“Guru Kripa happened to be a bird of the same feather – from the existing contractor entity. This couldn’t be permitted. All users of Juhu beach have complained about the bad performance of this contractor. I had demanded that this tender be recalled. The new contractor will have to deliver and we will keep a close eye on him,” said Satam.BMC officials said that M/s Guru Kripa didn’t participate in the new tenders and that they have now picked M/s Spectra for the job.The officials said that they had widened the qualification criteria and allowed even hospitality firms to participate to take part in the bidding process. This increased competition and gave the civic body better options so that tainted contractors don’t bag the deals again, officials added.Vijay Balamwar, deputy municipal commissioner, Solid Waste Management (SWM) department confirmed that a new contractor had been appointed.“Guru Kripa, which was in partnership with a different firm, wore a new hat and entered the bidding process. The contractor had not done justice to the beach-cleaning process in the past. Every month, they were fined at least Rs 1lakh by the BMC for doing a shoddy job, and even their beach combers were not functioning. Even during the monsoon season, their cleaning wasn’t up to the mark. Walkers on Juhu beach had to keep daily tabs,” said JBMCC member Mehjabeen Barwani.Civic officials said that earlier tender norms had stated that the contractor had to clear only 25 tonnes of garbage daily. However, during monsoon, an average of around 150 tonnes of garbage is washed ashore daily. “Considering these facts, the tender conditions were changed,” said a senior civic official.Mumbai Mirror had reported on June 14 last year that the BMC decided to hand over the control of Juhu and Versova beach clean-ups – from framing of tenders for selection of contractors to supervising the day-today work – to residents’ groups, a step that could spur residents in other parts of the city to similarly take ownership of maintaining cleanliness in their area. This became the first instance of the BMC formally partnering with residents’ groups to maintain cleanliness in public spaces.Municipal Commissioner Mehta had allowed the residents to take charge of the two beaches after they met him and pointed out that the contractors were not doing their job efficiently.Mehta had promised that a single contractor will be appointed on the basis of the tenders framed by the residents for the upkeep of both the beaches and that Guru Kripa-TechnoTrade will be shown the door.BMC officials said that a tender for Versova beach has also been floated and they will soon shortlist a contractor.