Corruption in BEST tender processing, says former corporator Ravi Raja

Former corporator of the Congress party, and opposition leader in the BMC, Ravi Raja has written to the general manager of the BEST Undertaking and alleged corruption in the tender process for procuring 1,400 electric buses on a rental basis.

In February, according to the letter, tenders were invited for procurement when questions were raised on the quality of the Olectra Greentech bus company. It had been observed that the company’s buses were bought by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and there was a technical fault in them.

Considering the quality and the delay in providing the buses, the BEST rejected the tender and reinvited fresh tenders. Thereafter, in the new bid, eight companies showed interest, where the BEST administration again chose Olectra’s tender.

Raja has alleged that Tata Company had shown their interest in the bid. In the past, the Tata company had given many services to BEST. Alleging a scam, he claimed there is no transparency in the selection of tender as renowned companies are being rejected showing a technical fault.

“Technical criteria of selection of buses have been tricked in such a way that companies like Tata and others will go out of the selection process,” said Raja to the Free Press Journal. “In Telangana, buses of Olectra automatically caught fire and the PMC had rejected them because of their quality.”