MUMBAI: This is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's final attempt to get even with contractors. For the first time, the civic body has told contractors to prove that they carry out work at such low rates. Normally, cost of projects shoot up after contracts are awarded at ridiculously low bids. For civil work contracts, corporators say cost-escalation isn't possible but work at such low rates will result in shoddy work. But corporators have welcomed the civic chief's viability test move.

Pravin Chedda ( Congress) told TOI, "It's good. It is impossible to carry out work at such low rates. It will only result in shoddy work."

In the last few years, many scams have been unearthed where bidders either quoted high figures to the civic body's acquiescence or first quoted low figures only to inflate them later.

Last August, a probe revealed that a supplier sold the BMC thousands of security waist belts at a price several times higher than what was charged from the Mumbai police. The BMC bought 1,642 multifunctional belts at Rs 10,743 each from the Mumbai-based supplier in September 2009. A few months later, that supplier sold 50,000 belts to the city's police at Rs 1,980 apiece.

This year, the civic body's standing committee passed tenders worth Rs 182 crore for 26 items to be given free in civic schools. Many corporators said the BMC is paying at least Rs 16 crore in excess to contractors; and if the retail price of all items is considered, the extra amount may be higher. The civic body, as per tenders, will pay Rs 40 crore for school uniforms for boys from junior kindergarten to Std X. But when corporators checked with city retailers, they found the sch-ool uniforms with similar material could be made for Rs 25 crore.

Apart from inflated purchase bills, two factors-outstanding bills and variations in project costs-are the main reasons for most financial mismanagement in the BMC. The modus operandi is simple: The cost of a project is estimated at the beginning of work, but contractors often demand more later, claiming additional work. The local corporator signs the request and passes it to the chief engineer, who prepares a proposal to be put up before the standing committee for approval.

In January, TOI had accessed data of projects (2007-2011), which indicated a Rs 1,694-crore or 61% increase in costs in essential projects like roads, storm water drains, bridges, buildings and gardens. In the case of roads, where the original estimate for asphalt and cement concrete roads was Rs 1,966 crore, it saw a variation of 34%. In the case of storm water drains, the variation has been as high as 116%. The worst has been bridges, where the original estimate was Rs 2.16 crore and after variation went up to Rs 146.26 crore-a 6,671% increase.