The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has placed a proposal before its Standing Committee seeking post-facto approval for repairs carried out at an EVM storage godown in Kandivali East, after the work was completed without following the regular tender process.
The facility is located in Wing A of Sanskruti Sankul in Kandivali East and falls under the jurisdiction of the BMC’s election department. The repairs covered civil and electrical work considered necessary to keep electronic voting machines stored at the godown secure, according to a report by Loksatta – Mumbai.
The estimated cost of the work, including all taxes, is ₹4,98,666.76. The repair was carried out through Nitin Enterprises on the instructions of the assistant commissioner of the R Central ward. The municipal administration said the work had to be completed urgently because of the need to protect the EVMs kept at the facility.
Under Section 72(1) of the updated Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, works costing more than ₹3 lakh are required to be tendered after advertisements are published in newspapers. The Kandivali repair exceeded that threshold. However, the administration did not invite tenders, stating that the regular process would have taken time and that the condition of the storage facility required immediate attention.
Because the work was undertaken without inviting tenders, the administration is now seeking approval after completion under Section 72(3) of the municipal law. The proposal placed before the Standing Committee records the work already carried out and seeks sanction for the expenditure.
The case places the municipal administration’s emergency-work powers alongside the procurement safeguards that apply to higher-value civic contracts. In this instance, the stated urgency relates specifically to the security of EVMs held in a facility under the election department. The supplied report does not provide details of the condition that triggered the repairs, the date on which the work began, the number of machines stored at the godown or the committee’s decision on the proposal.
The proposal will therefore need to be considered by the BMC Standing Committee before the expenditure receives the post-facto approval requested by the administration.
