It was discussed that as per the concession agreement between MMC and Fomento
and its consortium, the services of Asnani need to be incorporated for
verification of work of setting up solid waste management facility at
Sonsoddo and also requires clarification of the work carried as per
tender documents.

An earlier resolution passed on October 12,
2012, had decided to cancel the work order issued to the consultant as
the project was almost in the completion stage as per the status report
and that the council would form a sub-committee that will be tasked with
monitoring the progress of the work.

MMC chairperson Arthur
D’silva explained to the councilors the urgent requirement to sign the
agreement with Asnani so as to certify the bills raised by the project
concessionaire as there was no other alternative. MMC engineers nor PWD
engineers are willing to take on the responsibility of verifying the
bill.

MMC vice chairperson Pratima Coutinho
insisted that the consultant first give them a presentation and then
all the councilors be taken to the site for an inspection following
which the agreement would be signed. “The agreement if signed will be
for the tenure of one year and at the end of the year if the councilors
are satisfied with the work we can extend the agreement or appoint a new
consultant.”said D’silva. He added that the cost of the agreement was
yet to be decided and it would happen in due course.

Asnani was selected as the consultant with quoted amount of 17,73,000 and the work order was issued on 16 March, 2013.

The other agenda of the meeting was to approve the detail project
report (DPR) for landfill closure at Sonsoddo Municipal Solid Waste
Management (MSW) dumping site and also to forward the said proposal for
government sanction. So it was also resolved to approve the said
proposal and forward the same to the directorate of municipal
administration for granting government grants in order to execute the
same.

The councilors however rejected the idea of using solar
panels at the site. They further demanded to know how much work was
completed to which they were told that the plant was functioning and 90%
of the work had been completed.