MCL Officials involved in Illegal Building Construction in BBSR

In a major revelation, the officials of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) are allegedly involved in high level of corruption charges in connection with the construction of an illegal building at the outskirt of Bhubaneswar.

It is alleged that the MCL authority has violated all the rules and regulations of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA ) while constructing a huge building for  ‘Mahanadi Institute of Natural Research & Energy Management’(MINREM).  The construction project of the said building is estimated around 400 crore rupees.

MCL, a Miniratna Enterprise, has taken 30 acres of land in lease from Odisha Government to construct its office building and staff quarters at Tamando, Bhubaneswar. However, the MCL authority, in its allocated land, has now constructed another building for MINREM, which triggered the controversy.

The MCL authority neither informed the state government nor took any plan from BDA for MINREM construction project. Besides, there is a lack of transparency in the tender process to construct the multi crore building.

MCL has assigned the contract to National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) for the said project “on the basis of single nomination”. It is also found that the NBCC has executed the work through contractors, who constructed more numbers of floors without any permission from BDA. More importantly, the MCL authority has paid the money to NBCC for the said purpose though there is no grant for building plan.

Since the project work is believed to be filled with high level of irregular practices by the MCL officials, people from various quarters including the civil society of the capital city of Bhubaneswar have urged the intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the matter.

Note: The matter was raised by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak, Senior Journalist at www.orissamatters.com . Later, ETV Odia, Sambad Daily (Odisha’s largest circulated newspaper) and Prameya Daily reported it.