Contract of company that helped bring in penguins expired in October

It has come to light that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) contract with Goa Trade — the firm that helped the civic body secure eight Humboldt penguins from Korea, one of which, named Dory, died recently — was coming to an end in October 2016.

The BMC had faced a lot of flak over allegations that the infrastructure at Byculla Zoo was not adequate enough to host the penguins, because of which Dory died.

Leader of the opposition Pravin Chheda said on Tuesday, “I met municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta this evening, and he told me that even his hands were tied since a payment of Rs 2 crore had already been made to Goa Trade in 2014, when the proposal to bring in the penguins was mooted in the civic body. He said the contract was about to get over, and the BMC had no choice but to bring in the penguins before that contract expired.”

Mr Chheda, who had approached the Maharashtra Lokayukta earlier this month with a complaint against the BMC for the alleged negligence leading to Dory’s death, has been criticising the Shiv Sena for bringing in the penguins too early to earn brownie points with Mumbaikars before the 2017 civic polls.

Byculla Zoo director Sanjay Tripathi, however, said, “We had made only a part of the payment (to Goa Trade) in 2014, and the other half was made after we acquired the penguins.”