Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis halts Rs 3,190 crore project for overpricing

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister has has halted a ₹3,190 crore project approved during the tenure of Eknath Shinde's government. The then Health Minister Tanaji Sawant of the Shiv Sena had awarded the project for 'mechanised cleaning services' in government run hospitals, primary health clinics.

There were allegations that the cost of these equipments were highly inflated and also the contracts were given to companies that had no prior experience of running such a project.

Maharashtra government officials said that there were complaints about the tender as it was causing a huge loss to the state exchequer. For instance, while the annual contract would have cost Rs 638 crores for a year, previously the government used to spend Rs 70 crores annually on this.


The 3190 crore mechanized cleaning services contract besides being highly overpriced had also raised eyebrows as there was no money allocated for the project and as per government norms tenders had to be issued only when there were funds allocated for the purpose. Sawant's ministry however went ahead with the tender which has led to the current stay.

While a number of projects that have been cleared in the erstwhile government have been halted after Fadnavis has taken over as Chief Minister which has led to talk that it is the result of a 'cold war' brewing between Fadnavis and Shinde. However, government sources pointed out that Fadnavis has been responding to complaints of lack of transparency on projects being cleared and has stopped 'dubious' projects of both the NCP and Shiv Sena that were cleared during the erstwhile Shinde government.

The Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray camp has however waded into the issue and lauded Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for stopping the project from going ahead.

"There was a lot of corruption in the health department previously and hence the BJP was against Tanaji Sawant from being inducted as a Minister. There was a lot of corruption in procurement of medicines and other equipment and if Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister is stopping this and exposing this corruption then we welcome it."said Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP from the UBT Sena.