French firm accuses MMRDA officials of graft

French firm Systra which provides consultancy services to metro projects has accused officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority of corruption even as the Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed MMRDAs notice terminating the contract of its Indian subsidiaryOn November 12 2024 the French Embassy wrote a letter to Rupinder Singh Resident Commissioner of Maharashtra in Delhi requesting the government to study the issue in depth and resolve the situation while citing Systras complaint to the embassy about severe harassmentchallenges being faced while working as a general consultant on projects with MMRDASenior officials of MMRDA the planning and development agency of the state government were not available for commenting on the issueThe multinational engineering firm accused MMRDA officials of seeking undue favours as well as delaying payments pressuring the firm to inflate orders to contractors stalling approvals for key staff and imposing arbitrary penaltiesOn Tuesday a bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Arif Doctor of the high court noted that the MMRDA did not give reasons while discontining the services of Systra MVA Consulting India Pvt Ltd on January 3 2025As per Systras complaint that the Embassy sent to the Maharashtra government major harassment began in August 2023 after the change of some senior MMRDA officials who summoned the company and asked for undue favours in the form of monetary benefits on the pretext that MMRDA is demanding itSystra politely informed them that it would not comply the letter saidSystra is working as a general consultant for various metro projects executed by MMRDA in Mumbais metropolitan region including Metro Lines 5 6 7A 9 10 and 12 in addition to providing detailed design consultancy services for Metro Lines 2A and 7 Mandale Depot Kasheli Depot and branding guidelines for all Metro Lines of MMRDAThe MMRDA issued a notice of suspension of payments in January 2024 alleging various deficiencies related to old issues that had already been resolved concerning general consultancy services for Metro Lines 5 6 7A and 9 the letter saidFurthermore Systra has been put under pressure to recommend an inflated variation order for one of the major contractors working on Line 9 of the projectSince we are not complying with this we believe MMRDA is continuing the suspension of payments for General Consultancy Services for Lines 5 9 and 7A civil projects the letter allegedMMRDA had stopped making payments with the pending payments accumulating to Rs 30 crore the complaint said alleging pressure to certify payments for petty contractors appointed directly by MMRDADespite repeated attempts the MMRDA spokesperson did not provide any comment on the issueAs per the petition filed by Systra MVA Consulting India Pvt Ltd in the Bombay High Court challenging the termination of its contract it was appointed a general consultant for design assistance in procurement construction management and supervision of three routes of Mumbai Metro ThaneBhiwandiKalyan Andheri CSIA and Mira Bhayander in 2021While the initial contract was to expire on November 2024 it was extended till December 2026But on January 3 2025 the MMRDA issued the company a notice stating it had decided to discontinue its services The firm then moved the HCWe find that the action of the MMRDA in discontinuation of the terms of the contract which was extended up to December 2026 without assigning any reasons is arbitrary unfair and unreasonable the HC said in the order on TuesdayThe general conditions of the contract cannot be read to mean that the MMRDA has a license to act unfairly arbitrarily or unreasonably in the contractual field without assigning reasons the court said asking the MMRDA to take a fresh decision after hearing the companyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever