A hitherto unknown fact has come to light in the controversial windmill that was installed by the GCDA at the Marine Drive some time ago.
As claimed by the GCDA the United Electricals, a public sector company based in Kollam, was not behind the implementation of the windmill project. The company had given the contract to another private firm to implement the project on an ‘experimental basis’ tender.
An RTI reply received by ‘City Express’, has revealed some anomalies on the installation of the windmill that crashed to the ground.
With both the GCDA and the installer company, United Electricals, claiming that they have not spent any money on the project, it remains a mystery why a private company took up a project even without getting an advance amount. The RTI reply also reveals that the United Electricals was not equipped to set up the windmill, as exposed by the ‘City Express’ earlier and that it was not responsible if any untoward incident happened during the installation.
It has become clear that the whole extravaganza was at the expense of public safety. “We have not incurred any expense in the implementation of the windmill project,” states the company in an RTI query. The company said that no money was spent even on buying the windmill parts. “The first study for the windmill project was done under the supervision of renewable energy chief consultant B Harinarayanan. Later another company was selected by us for the implementation of the project through awarding a tender on an experimental basis, and the project was implemented by that company and their technological partners. As it was conducted on an experimental basis by another company, United Electricals has not incurred any loss through the project,” said the RTI reply.
It remains unclear whether the GCDA had allowed the company to let out the implementation on subcontract and why a private firm would implement such a huge project without receiving any sum of money from either the GCDA or from United Electricals.
According to GCDA chairman Venugopal, the project was awarded to United Electricals on an experimental basis tender at Rs 3.9 lakh. The chairman said that the company had provided him enough documents to prove its qualification.
Earlier, the ‘City Express’ had exposed that the project cost approximately more than Rs 7.5 lakh, while the GCDA claimed that it came to Rs 3.9 lakh. The Exide-C10 battery installed in the windmill alone costs more than Rs 3 lakh and the cranes used for mounting the windmill were hired for Rs 64,000 per day. The leaves of the windmill had fallen the very next day after it was set up on July 5. It was restored a week later only to fall apart again. Consequently, the GCDA pulled down the windmill to prevent further embarrassment on July 20.
With no proper fencing or lighting to prevent the public from getting close to the windmill with the blades weighing about 35 kg set atop the 40-foot tower, the safety of the windmill was at stake.