Overview
- On Thursday, PWD Minister P K Basheer told the state Assembly that a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau preliminary inquiry into the 2006 MC Road works is under way and its report has not yet been submitted.
- The fresh review was ordered after officials found discrepancies in the VACB files from 2006 and will determine whether the matter should move from a preliminary inquiry to a full investigation.
- A 2004 Comptroller and Auditor General report cited inflated tender awards that caused an estimated ₹84 crore loss and questioned a ₹50 crore payment to a foreign consultancy for the Kerala State Transport Project.
- Basheer told legislators the government now alleges up to ₹700 crore in losses from contract overpricing, higher land acquisition costs, and early mobilisation payments awarded above estimates.
- The government said it will consider a separate probe into the suicide of the Malaysian project engineer, who had raised complaints during the works, to examine whether financial exploitation or project irregularities played a role.