BHUBANESWAR: Two bikes - a Splendor and a CD Dawn - transported around 10,000 tonne of solid waste, while a Maruti Suzuki Brezza car lifted another 23,667 tonne. That’s not all. An e-rickshaw transported a staggering 24,460 tonne of the legacy waste in a span of months in Rourkela.
And, all these vehicles were paid a whopping Rs 3.29 crore by the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC).
The latest CAG report’s audit of the bio-mining project in Rourkela has exposed what appears to be a multi-crore scam, with thousands of tonnes of solid waste allegedly shown as transported using improbable and non-existent vehicles between June 2022 and January 2024.
As per the report, a staggering 60,058 tonne of legacy waste was lifted as part of the bio-mining project using two bikes, a car and an e-rickshaw. Even a ghost vehicle was involved.
The audit, which outlined billing cycles between February 2023 and January 2024, showed that municipal funds totalling Rs 3.29 crore were disbursed by the RMC to an agency for processing the legacy waste.
“The matter warrants detailed investigation by appropriate authorities to determine the nature and extent of irregularities and establish accountability as per prescribed procedures. The fact has also been intimated (July 2024) to the government. However, no reply was received as of October 2025,” the CAG report stated.
The payments were made at an official rate of Rs 548.70 per tonne. The audit found that an e-rickshaw bearing registration number OR14W 3121 was shown as transporting 24,460 tonne of waste in seven months - translating to 116 tonne of waste a day - accounting for a “fraudulent payment” of Rs 1.34 crore. A Brezza car bearing registration number OR14W 3122 was shown lifting 23,667 tonne during the same period, for which a payment of around Rs 1.30 crore was made.
Similarly, a Hero Honda Splendor bearing registration number JH02K 2776 lifted 9,462 tonne of waste in three months - between November and December 2023 and January 2024 - roughly 105 tonne a day, and was paid Rs 52 lakh. A Hero Honda CD Dawn, bearing registration number OR19 0393, lifted 444 tonne and was paid Rs 2 lakh during the same period.
Then there was a vehicle bearing registration number OR04AD 2495, which did not exist on the Vahan portal but was shown as lifting 2,025 tonne of waste. It was paid Rs 11 lakh.
The CAG observed that the RMC had paid Rs 9.49 crore to the executing agency for mining 1.73 lakh tonne of legacy waste between June 2022 and January 2024. In fact, the civic body, in its agreement with the agency, had initially set a target of lifting 61,156 tonne of waste from the dump site near BPUT.
However, the audit revealed that the agency commenced bio-mining operations conducting the mandatory survey in the presence of the executive engineer of the RMC, as stipulated. “The waste quantity was also revised twice - from the original 61,156 tonne to 1.40 lakh tonne in January 2023 and subsequently to 1.73 lakh tonne in November 2023 - a 183 per cent increase from the contracted amount,” the CAG stated.