After ordering auditing of power discoms, the Arvind Kejriwal Government on Tuesday paved the way for an audit of Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) by the CAG. DIMTS, a joint venture of Delhi Government with Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), is currently maintaining BRT corridor, installing GPS in autos and running cluster buses in Delhi. DIMTS, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Delhi Government was created in 2006 by then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to execute mega transport related project in the national Capital that include BRT, automatic ticketing, cluster buses, development of ISBT, intelligent signalling system, construction of bus depots and installing GPS in autos. DIMTS’ turnover was of Rs79.54 crore during 2012-13 and a turnover of around Rs70 crore is projected during the current financial year.
The CAG had earlier raised question mark on its status by asking the Delhi Government whether DIMTS is functioning in the capacity of a private consultant or as a Government undertaking and its role in Government’s transport projects. The CAG had taken a ‘serious’ note of the Government not following the tendering process while awarding projects to the agency and has asked the Delhi Government to define the role of DIMTS.
The former Deputy Commissioner (Transport) Varsha Joshi in her office circular, urged the department to consider DIMTS as a private company while awarding project to the agency and it should be directed to participate in the bidding process of the projects.
“If the public sector entity owns more than 50 per cent share, the joint venture would be regarded as a public sector entity. However, if the share of public sector entity is 50 per cent or less, then the joint venture is a private sector company and would, therefore, not be accountable to the Government, Public Accounts Committee, Public Undertakings Committee and CAG,” the circular said.
Sources said the audit order has been given after a delegation of transporters had approached Kejriwal asking him to investigate the work done by DIMTS. The delegation of transporters had met the Chief Minister earlier this month and was of the view that the new Government should take a relook at the projects awarded to DIMTS. One of the transporter companies had alleged that DIMTS was not doing projects on their own, but “subletting” it to the contractors, giving work “without any proper price quotation”.
It may be noted that Delhi Cabinet had earlier on October 11, 2010 defined the role of DIMTS and formed a high level committee headed by Chief Secretary for assigning of works to DIMTS. The DIMTS has been involved in a variety of projects without following the mandatory tendering process.
Besides operating the first BRT pilot project between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate, it is involved in the projects like the bus cluster system, the automatic fare collection system, advisory on procurement of low-floor buses as well as constructing multi-level parking lots at NDMC areas. The Public Works Department (PWD) has also awarded works for several FoBs.