The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said the decision of the Korean-Spanish joint venture (JV) company — appointed consultant to the Mumbai Coastal Road Project — to sub-contract work to Innowave Engineering and Advisors, which is now under the lens of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), without the corporation’s approval was “illegal”.
Innowave Engineering is a company co-owned by Satyajeet Deshmukh, a cousin of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, and had received consultancy fees from the Korean-Spanish consultant, according to the ED.
Sources in the BMC told The Indian Expressthat officials would take up the matter with the consultant, a JV between Korean company Yooshin Engineering Corporation and Spanish firm Tec4.
“Till now there was nothing on paper and we did not know about the sub-contract. Now that it has come to our notice through media reports, we will soon take it up with the contractor and check how they went ahead with it without seeking our approval,” a source said.
The tender document of Project Management Consultant (PMC) work for coastal road project states that before appointing a sub-consultant, the PMC must take prior approval from BMC. Officials from the Coastal Road department said they are not aware of any company with the name of Innowave working for the project.
A source from the Coastal Road department said that there are no official documents that show Innowave was given a sub-contract. “In our records, there is no such company which has been given sub-consultancy or is working for coastal road. As per the tender condition, the PMC should first take prior approval with BMC for appointing any sub-consultant. If PMC has appointed any sub-consultant without our permission then it is illegal,” said the source.
As per Satyajeet’s three statements which are part of the ED supplementary chargesheet filed in December, accessed by The Indian Express, Innowave effected a contract with the JV for providing consultancy services for the MCRP.
The consultancy fees to the JV for package IV from Princess Street flyover to Priyadarshini Park is Rs 83 crore, according to Satyajeet’s statement. The total cost of the project package IV is pegged at Rs 2900 crore.
The JV of Yooshin-Tec4 is a PMC for package IV of coastal road. The PMC contract was awarded on August 29, 2018 for 72 months after the proposal was cleared in the BMC’s Standing Committee.
According to the document accessed by The Indian Express, as per the PMC’s General Condition of Contract (GCC), if the consultant enters into a subcontract for the performance of any part of the services, it needs to take prior approval in writing from the BMC .
“The consultant shall obtain the MCGM’s (BMC) prior approval in writing before taking any of the following actions: (a) appointing personnel to carry out any part of the services, including the terms and conditions of such appointment, (b) entering into a subcontract for the performance of any part of the services, it being understood 1) that the selection of the sub-consultant and the terms and conditions of the subcontract shall have been approved in writing by the MCGM prior to the execution of the subcontract and 2) that the consultant shall remain fully liable for the performance of the services by the sub-consultant and its personnel pursuant to this contract,” reads the clause 3.7 of GCC for PMC work.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Deputy Chief Engineer of Coastal Road department MM Swami who was overseeing package IV of MCRP confirmed that there is no record on Innowave working as sub-consultant or whether approval was taken from BMC to appoint sub-contractor.
The ED is probing transactions of Rs 10.9 crore of Innowave which it suspects were linked to Deshmukh. Apart from the Mumbai coastal road project, Innowave also has sub-contracts with Yooshin Engineering for the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi expressway and with Louis Berger for the Versova-Bandra Sea Link project.
“The said project is being consulted by M/s Yooshin Engineering Corporation (Korean company) JV (joint venture) with Tec4 (Spanish company) to whom Innowave Engineering & Advisors Pvt Ltd is sub-consultant and receiving a fees of Rs 33 crore. I further state that since 2018, my company, Innowave Engineering and Advisors Pvt Ltd, has received Rs 17 crore as consultancy fees,” Satyajeet said in his statement.
Emails to Yooshin Engineering Corporation and Tec4 did not yield any response. Phone calls and text messages to Satyajeet Deshmukh and Ajay Dhawangale also did not elicit any response.
As per the statement, Innowave is providing one marine engineer, one highway and safety engineer, one contract expert, three project engineers, two to four quality assurance engineers, two concrete lining engineers and about six site engineers.
The staff of 20 persons is receiving a salary of Rs 13 lakh from Yooshin, while Satyajeet receives a salary of Rs 6 lakh. Innowave was appointed as sub-consultant before the tender was awarded to Yooshin, Satyajeet’s statement says.
His co-director at Innowave, Ajay Dhawangale, however, denied this. He said that the principal consultant (Yooshin-Tec4) was appointed before Innowave was given the contract by the joint venture.
When asked how he came to know about three projects his company has sub-consultancy with, Satyajeet, in his statement to the ED, has said that he has been working in the field of construction and consultancy for the last 10-15 years and has contacts in various corporations in the state and that he gets “timely information” from his sources. He also said that all tenders are published in newspapers from where he comes to know about the projects.
The BMC is constructing a 10.58-km MCRP from Princess Street Flyover abutting popular Marine Drive to Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) with cost of Rs 12,721 crore. So far 50 per cent work has been completed on the entire coastal road project and it is likely to be completed by July 2023.
South portion of MCRP has been divided into three parts–package I cover Priyadarshini Park to Baroda Palace, package II from Baroda Palace to Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) and package IV including Princess Street Flyover in Marine Drive to Priyadarshini Park .
While the construction contract of package II and IV was awarded to L&T (Larsen & Toubro) Limited, the package I was given to the joint venture of HCC-HDC. Apart from these two there is a general consultant and three project management consultants (PMCs) working on the project.
Documents from the BMC shows that while general consultant Aecom Asia Company Limited is looking after the entire project, Louis Berger for package 1, joint venture of Egis India-Cullen Grummitt for package 2 and another joint venture of Yooshin Engineering and Tech Cuatro (Tec4) were awarded contract as PMCs.
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