BMC to pay heavily for CER botch-up
The BMC may have to shell out `15 crore due to a calculation error on part of a consultant in the Scientific Closure Project of Gorai dumping ground. According to the civic officials, the consultant erred gravely in assessing the Certified Emission Redu-ction (CER) in the project. This will cost the BMC heavily as it will have to pay `15 crore to the Asian Development Bank.
There have been several controversies over the role of consultants in civic projects, with corporators alleging that they have not been of much use and have only caused financial losses to the civic body. The Gorai dumping ground closure case has further strengthened this argument. The BMC had appointed consultants IL&FS in 2008 to study the amount of emissions after the scientific closure of the Gorai dumping ground. The consultants had estimated that that the project would generate 4.26 lakh CERs in a period of five years and 12.29 lakh CERs in 10 years.
Accordingly, the BMC made an emission purchase agreement with the ADB for the period of the first five years (2009-14) for `24.51 crore. Civic officials claim that till June 2012, the BMC was supposed to generate 2.74 lakh CERs. But it has managed to generate only 14,400.
However, due to BMC’s failure to generate the promised CERs, the ADB has demanded the civic body to reimburse them either by paying the entire amount or buy 4.26 lakh CERs from the open market, which costs around `15 crore. Stun-ned by the events, the BMC has slapped a showcause notice on the consultant. The BMC had paid IL&FS `1.22 crore in 2009 as consultant’s fee for the exercise.
“We have asked the consultant to return the fees. We have also asked him to arrange to buy the CERs from the open market free of cost,” said additional municipal commissioner Mohan Adtani.
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