In new modus operandi, five to six contractors bid at varying prices for a project. All but the highest bidder make deliberate mistakes rendering them ineligible. The contract then goes to highest bidder.In what opposition parties have dubbed ‘fixing’ in civic road contracts, it has come to light that contractors collude with each other to ensure that the highest bidder among them —rather than the lowest — bags the contract.Their method is simple: if five contractors bid for a project at varying prices, all but the highest bidder will commit deliberate errors in their papers that eliminate them. With this new modus operandi in place, the BMC is forced to give contracts at costs much higher than their own estimates, and that too to dodgy contractors.The practice showed up when BMC’s Roads Department finalised three contracts worth over Rs 150 crore for constructing roads in the eastern suburbs. Seven firms participated in the bids, but when it came to submitting relevant documents, all except the highest bidders rendered themselves ‘ineligible’ with flawed documents.The modus operandi was exposed by Congress legislator Aslam Shaikh, who has written to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta in this regard. “This is nothing but ‘fixing’. Usually, road contracts are awarded for around 30% below BMC’s estimate. In this case, they rose 10% above estimate. The contractors have formed a cartel and are rigging tenders,” Shaikh said, demanding that the tenders be scrapped and re-floated.While the contracts will be awarded once the Standing Committee approves them, the tenders were bagged by Ms Neev Infrastructure, Ms Shantinath Roadways and Ms Speco Infrastructure. The other contractors declared ineligible — Ms KR Construction, Ms RK Madhani, Ms ME Infra and Ms Bitcon India — are all registered contractors with BMC. Interestingly, of them Ms RK Madhani bagged a similar road contract worth Rs 100 crore even though he became ineligible for others.Last August, in fact, Mumbai Mirror had reported how, for the first time in recent years, BMC awarded a Rs 263 crore project to repair 55 traffic junctions in the island city to a bid that exceeded the civic estimate by 18 per cent. Contractors usually ensure their bids are lower than BMC’s estimate, but over the last couple of years, all of BMC’s attempts to prevent cartelization have failed.“These contractors have formed a cartel. How can they all become ineligible despite bagging other contracts of similar nature? BMC must scrap the contracts and have a third party probe the entire rigging scam. BMC has lost Rs 30 crore due to the ‘fixing’ and the purpose of competitive bidding has been defeated,” Shaikh added.Sandeep Deshpande, MNS group leader in the BMC, claimed that civic officials were part of the nexus. “This time BMC kept a gap of one day from the time when tenders were floated and when bids were to be submitted. Usually, it happens the same day. This 24-hour window allowed contractors to form a cartel and loot BMC. The tenders must be scrapped,” Deshpande said.He too has written to Mehta demanding action. “How can Ms RK Madhani conveniently get disqualified for smaller tenders and bag bigger ones? This is nothing but rigging of contracts,” Deshpande alleged. According to civic norms, if there is a sole bidder for any tender, the tender is re-floated.On their part, BMC officials claim that due procedures were followed. “The tenders were not given to single bidders since many firms participated. They were disqualified later. We can’t do anything about it if they became ineligible for any technical reasons,” said Ashok Pawar, chief engineer, roads.Pawar refused to comment on the 24-hour window that contractors got and the allegations of rigging.