ACB raids officials linked to failed Mandur project

Sleuths from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided premises linked to four BBMP officials, one of whom is retired, in connection with the alleged corruption in the Waste to Energy (WtE) plant at Mandur landfill, on Saturday.

The officials are executive engineers K.V. Ravi and Venkateshappa, junior engineer Raghavendra, and retired executive engineer Suresh. The case dates back to more than a decade.

Srinivas Gayatri Resource Recovery Pvt. Ltd. was awarded the tender to build a WtE plant at Mandur in 2005 and 35 acres of government land was allotted. The firm, however, failed to put up a WtE plant, but instead mortgaged the government land to raise a loan of ₹52.75 crore.

BBMP reviewed the project and cancelled the MoU in 2014 after the firm failed to put up the plant, said civic officials. Sources in BBMP alleged that the firm was made to repay the loan and the land allotted was withdrawn.

However, BBMP had paid the firm ₹4.61 crore as tipping fee for the waste dumped at Mandur landfill despite the firm not processing the waste.

This matter was taken up by the Committee on Petitions of the State legislature, which directed the BBMP to refer the matter to ACB.