Amid P&T apartment controversy, Kochi Corporation drops TDLC bid

The Kochi Corporation has turned down a bid by the Thrissur District Labour Contract Cooperative Society (TDLC), the agency that constructed the now-controversial P&T Apartment Complex at Mundamveli in West Kochi, into which the Keralam government has ordered a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) probe.

TDLC had emerged as the lowest bidder in the tender floated by the Kochi Corporation in August for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for its proposed convention centre at Edappally. However, the Corporation has now decided to retender the project. The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), which had commissioned the P&T Apartment project, terminated TDLC’s services in July 2024.

“We could not have engaged an agency against which the Corporation council itself had passed a resolution seeking a Vigilance probe in connection with the Mundamveli issue. The fact that the company could participate in the tender indicates that it was not blacklisted despite its services being terminated following shortcomings in the apartment complex construction,” Mayor V.K. Minimol said.

Blacklisting sought

Sources associated with the previous GCDA administration, during whose tenure the apartment complex was commissioned, said they had written to the State government seeking the blacklisting of the company over the alleged deficiencies in construction. Since the GCDA does not have the authority to blacklist a company, it was for the government to take an appropriate decision, they said.

“We terminated the company’s services following its failure to address issues, including leakage. Consequently, more than ₹1 crore was withheld from its bills out of the total project estimate of ₹14.62 crore. In addition, revenue recovery proceedings were initiated for ₹4.35 crore owing to its failure to rectify the construction defects,” GCDA sources said.

The sources further said that TDLC, being an accredited agency for government projects, had been awarded the apartment complex work without a tender process, with the Local Self-Government Department and the Life Mission being aware of the decision.

“When we assumed charge in February 2022, the project had come to a standstill. Retendering the work would have resulted in further delays and escalated costs. Our priority was to complete the project and relocate the affected families at the earliest, considering the hardships they faced due to repeated inundation caused by tidal flooding in their colony,” the sources said.

However, M.R. Raveendran, vice-president of TDLC, maintained that the original project estimate of over ₹20 crore had been sharply reduced to cut costs, resulting in significant compromises that affected the structure.

“Our bills were also not cleared. This was in addition to a loss of ₹5.5 crore caused by the steep increase in steel prices following the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.

Mr. Raveendran said the company was unfazed by the Vigilance probe and possessed all the necessary documents to establish its innocence. He also claimed that a Vigilance inquiry conducted during the construction phase had found no irregularities.

Meanwhile, the P&T Apartment Protest Committee has sought an inquiry into the alleged asset accumulation by officials of the GCDA engineering wing in Mulanthuruthy during the period when the project was under construction.

“Questions still remain as to why TDLC was not blacklisted. We will continue our indefinite protest until our demands are accepted in writing. We had to wait six years, from 2018 to 2024, for the apartment complex to become a reality. We cannot afford to wait that long again,” said Abhilash P. Parameswaran, president of the committee.

The committee is also seeking a meeting with the Chief Minister after a high-level meeting on the issue, expected to be held on October 6.