The Orissa State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC), the state owned public transporter, failed to realise Rs 2.7 crore towards the lease rent from Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) for six sites given on lease to the company. The six sites are located in Barbil, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar.
Besides, the sale of OSRTC’s Baripada property to RRL without retendering also lacked justifications, says the audit report (commercial) of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for 2008-09 tabled in the Orissa assembly yesterday. As per the report, the Board of Directors (BoD) of OSRTC decided to dispose of the surplus land of the company in December 1994. During tendering, the offer of BPD Steel Syndicate was short listed in June 2004.
However, the BoD took a decision in October 2007 for selling OSRTC land at Baripada at Rs 6 crore and sub-leasing six other sites to RRL, though RRL didn’t take part in the tender floated for the purpose. As per the valuation of Swain and Associates, the value of this land was Rs 5.1 crore.
But the land was sold to RRL with marginal increase of Rs 0.9 crore after a lapse of six years without re-tendering, which lacked justification, the CAG report pointed out. Besides, RRL didn’t pay the lease rent for six sites resulting in non-realisation of Rs 2.7 crore, it added.
Though the management stated that the tender for sale of land at Baripada and leasing out six other sites was invited in November 2007 as per the Swiss Challenge Process, no bidder came forward. CAG, however, observed that the current valuation wasn’t done even though there was a gap of six years between the date of valuation and sale of land. While due to lack of pursuance, Rs 39.6 crore remained un-realised from the state government for a long time, OSRTC lost Rs 1.25 crore on account of shop rental, parking and advertisement.
On operational performance of the company, CAG report stated that it couldn’t keep pace with growing demand for public transport as its share declined from 4.29 percent in 2004-05 to 4.04 percent in 2008-09.