Mahayuti government favoured firms in tenders in return for campaign finance donations, claims Congress

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera address a press conference. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Congress on Friday (October 18, 2024) accused the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra of favouring certain companies in infrastructure tenders in exchange for campaign finance donations, resulting in a loss of at least ₹10,903 crore to taxpayers.

The Opposition questioned whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari would be held accountable. Congress incharge general secretary communications, Jairam Ramesh, alleged that the government granted preferential treatment to specific companies in exchange for campaign donations, costing the public heavily. He compared the situation to “pre-paid chanda, post-paid dhandha.”

The party’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera added that the BJP introduced the Electoral Bonds Scheme to channel funds, and they have repeatedly pointed out how certain companies that donated through this scheme were awarded large projects. He said Maharashtra as the state most affected by this “chande ka dhanda,” with standard rules bypassed to benefit a few.

Mr. Khera pointed to recent tenders by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for projects like the Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor and the Pune Ring Road. Initially, MSRDC had a rule allowing each bidder only two packages, but this was changed by reclassifying eight projects as tunnel projects with altered qualification criteria, favouring a small group of companies. Mr. Khera noted that unlike past projects, where tunnel diameter and length were set at standard criteria (50% for diameter and 20% for length), these new projects had a tunnel diameter qualification of 78%, narrowing the competition to only three firms.

Additionally, the tunnel length criteria were set at just 6%, or 250 meters, which conveniently matched the experience of a favoured company. He also claimed that these projects were excluded from the rule limiting a maximum of two packages per bidder, giving special treatment to these firms.

He pointed out that while similar tunnel projects by agencies like NHAI and MoRTH were awarded at ₹180-200 crore per kilometre, MSRDC’s projects were priced much higher, at ₹240-250 crore per kilometre. The total bid value for the eight projects was ₹20,990 crore, while Mr. Khera argued the fair price should have been around ₹10,087 crore—resulting in an overcharge of ₹10,903 crore.

Mr. Khera provided a timeline, stating that in April 2023, MSRDC began inviting Requests for Qualification (RFQ) for the Pune Ring Road project, classified as a tunnel project. In June, MSRDC received RFQ applications from 28 firms, and by December, 18 firms were qualified for the next round. Among them was a company that later made donations via electoral bonds in July 2023.

By January 2024, MSRDC invited bid prices with a 900-day construction deadline. In April, they received 26 bids from 12 firms, but Khera stated that the lowest bids were significantly higher than MSRDC’s original estimates. Despite this, MSRDC awarded the contracts rather than reopen the bidding process.

He concluded by asking whether PM Modi, Finance Minister Sitharaman, and Minister Gadkari would be held accountable for this.