Delhi Govt's ambitious water supply scheme under CBI scanner

New Delhi: Delhi Government's ambitious project to provide uninterrupted water supply has come under CBI scanner which has initiated three enquiries relating to tender terms allegedly favouring one of the bidders, a charge denied by Delhi Jal Board.The agency has also registered another enquiry related to alleged irregularities in the quality testing of water supply meters purchased from an infrastructure major private company, CBI sources said today.The CBI registered three separate Preliminary Enquiries with regards to public-private partnership project with a European firm for supplying uninterrupted water supply to Nangloi, Malviya Nagar and Mehrauli areas, they said. CBI has alleged that tender conditions for uninterpreted water supply to these areas were “tailor-made” to suit one of the bidders, prompting the agency to start separate enquiry for each of these areas, they said.“All the laid down procedures were followed. We followed a transparent process while deciding the bids. There has been no deviation in the process,” DJB spokesperson said. For the contract for Mehrauli project, the CBI has registered preliminary enquiry against unknown officials of Delhi Jal Board, SPML infra, Suez Environment, Veolia Water India Limited, Shiv Marwah and Associates and Jalakam Solutions.When contacted, Shiv Marwah said he was not aware of the development.The preliminary enquiry related to Malviya Nagar area is against unknown Delhi Jal Board officials, Suez Environment, SPML infra, Veolia Water India Limited, DRA consultants and Shah Technical.Emails have been sent to all the companies for their responses. DRA senior engineer Rajesh said the company had got Malviya Nagar project through proper tendering process and there was no wrongdoing.The enquiry in the Nangloi project is against unknown Delhi Jal Board officials, Veolia Water India Limited, Suez Environment and IL and FS consultants. When contacted, Arun Saha, Director of IL and FS, refused to offer any comments, saying he is yet to receive any communication from CBI.The fourth enquiry registered by the agency is in connection with alleged irregularities in the quality testing of meters. The enquiry is against unknown officers of Fluid Control Research Institute, Palakkad, unknown officers of Delhi Jal Board, Larsen and Toubro and SPML Infra Limited. It is alleged that water meters sent to FCRI, Palakkad, Kerala for quality testing were allegedly first rejected but again when these meters were sent to the Institute, they were cleared without any changes, the sources said. They said agency wants to know what prompted the change in the opinion of the Institute.“The order was awarded on L-1 (lowest bidder) basis. Consequently, the question of wrong doing does not arise. We are only a contractor for supplying and installing these meters,” L and T spokesperson said while commenting on the development.