Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Keralam Public Works Department Minister P.K. Basheer on Thursday (October 29, 2026) stressed the need for a fresh probe into allegations of corruption in the MC Road project undertaken nearly two decades ago, when Gyanesh Kumar, the present Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), was the Public Works Department (PWD) secretary in the State.
The Minister said the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had earlier investigated the allegations, including a charge that PWD officials had demanded ₹2 crore to clear bills submitted by companies contracted for road development works. However, the investigation files were reportedly closed without the probe being fully completed. The State, therefore, intends to take further action after a detailed review of the earlier investigation report, he said.
A fresh preliminary inquiry has already been ordered into the allegations, although the report is yet to be received. Mr. Basheer disclosed this while replying to questions raised by BJP MLAs B.B. Gopakumar, V. Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar during Question Hour in the State Assembly regarding the status of the Vigilance probe. The new preliminary inquiry was ordered after discrepancies were noticed in the VACB investigation conducted in 2006. The earlier probe mainly focussed on allegations of irregularities in the PWD during the period under scrutiny.
Key charges
The key allegations were that the State government had suffered a loss of around ₹700 crore because contracts under the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) road works were awarded at amounts significantly higher than the estimated costs. The estimate for road improvement works was ₹787 crore, while the contracts were awarded for ₹1,209 crore. Similarly, road construction works estimated at ₹244 crore were awarded for ₹343 crore. The estimate for land acquisition and rehabilitation was ₹187 crore, but the expenditure incurred was ₹323 crore. Allegations of corruption were also raised in connection with the land acquisition process for the road development project.
According to a 2004 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the government suffered a loss of ₹84 crore because contracts were awarded at inflated tender amounts. The report also raised questions over the decision to engage a foreign consultancy firm for the KSTP project instead of State-level agencies such as the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) and the CESS. The foreign consultancy firm was paid ₹50 crore in remuneration.
The earlier Vigilance probe also examined allegations that PWD officials had demanded ₹2 crore to clear bills submitted by companies engaged in road development works. The officials were then accused of approving and sanctioning payments without properly verifying the bills submitted by the contractors.
The government will also consider ordering a detailed investigation into the suicide of the project manager of PATI-BEL, a joint venture between a Malaysian firm and Bhageeratha Engineering that was awarded the project. The investigation would examine whether financial exploitation or related irregularities had any role in the incident, if such a probe is deemed necessary, the Minister informed the Assembly.
In 2006, the KSTP undertook a World Bank-funded project worth ₹215 crore to reconstruct the MC Road from Angamaly to Thiruvananthapuram. The Malaysian firm’s project engineer, Lee See Been, then reportedly raised several complaints during construction before returning to Malaysia, where he died by suicide.
Published – October 29, 2026 01:05 pm IST
