Congress sees corruption in Zozila tunnel contract, seeks sacking of Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The AICC on Monday demanded sacking of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, alleging that the awarding of the Rs 10,050-cr Zozila tunnel contract to IRB Infrastructure Developers was a “clear case of corruption”.

Addressing a press conference in Congress headquarters, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh claimed that Gadkari, the Road Transport and Highways Minister, has allegedly “violated the CVC norms while awarding the contract”.

Singh claimed that IRB was the sole bidder for the massive project in J&K and therefore, the government should have gone in for the Swiss challenge method. Singh also alleged that Gadkari had dealings with Dattatreya Mhaiskar, head of IRB, which had shares in the controversial Purti group floated by the minister. He also claimed Gadkari’s son Nikhil was director for some years in a subsidiary of IRB.

Singh pointed out that Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement which requires a public authority that has received an unsolicited bid for a public project to be provided to government, to publish the bid and invite third parties to match or exceed it.