Rs 1,136-cr digitisation contract under scanner

Disclosures on pricing and volumes in a five-year modernisation project have raised questions about costs and oversight. Mumbai: A project described as a routine “digital transformation” of Maharashtra’s registration machinery has raised eyebrows after regulatory disclosures indicated that its billing could reach a staggering Rs 1,136 crores over five years. The Inspector General of Registration & Controller of Stamps (IGR), which comes under the state’s revenue department, has issued a Letter of Intent to a consortium led by the Navratna public-sector firm RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., alongside the Nashik-based infrastructure company Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. The consortium has been appointed as managed service provider for a comprehensive modernisation of IGR offices across the state. The five-year turnkey contract covers end-to-end operation and maintenance of IT systems, networks, cloud services and application infrastructure, as well as the scanning of official documents. Execution is scheduled to run until March 19, 2032. It is the financial structure, rather than the scope, that has prompted unease. The approved rate for scanning registered documents is Rs 24.75 per page. Industry sources say prevailing market prices for bulk document scanning typically range between Rs 3 and Rs 6 per page - roughly a quarter of the contracted rate. Costly Contract In identical filings with the NSE and BSE last week, the consortium partners referred to historical data in the request for proposals showing that an average of 9.18 crores pages were scanned annually over the past five years. At the agreed rate, this would translate into payments of around Rs 227 crores a year, taking the projected total to about Rs 1,136 crores over five years. The contract does not specify a ceiling, and payouts are expected to vary with actual volumes. Critics and watchdogs argue that the absence of a fixed cap, combined with a per-page charge well above market levels, leaves room for inflated bills or padded volumes. Prafful Sarda, a Pune-based social worker, questioned the rationale for outsourcing the task. Even if Rs 10 per page were taken as a generous benchmark using advanced machines, Sarda asked, “what is the need to award the scanning contract at a massive cost to outsiders when the state government can itself do it at a much lower cost.” He also raised doubts about the composition of the consortium. “What is the expertise in IT-related work of Ashoka Buildcon Ltd., which is a road infra developer. Moreover, scanning is an easy process – a 100-page file can be scanned and uploaded in barely five minutes. Massive discounts are offered for bulk works. Are the IGR staffers so over-burdened that scanning work has to be outsourced at exorbitant public cost?” Sarda said. According to him, contractors would gain access to sensitive land and property records, as well as information on real-estate preferences and market trends, potentially giving them an early advantage in identifying future development opportunities. He compared the case to what he described as the IRCTC spending Rs 2,619 crores on website upkeep and maintenance over three years, along with Rs 1,950 crores in UPI fees, figures cited in an RTI reply and reported earlier by this newspaper. When contacted, a spokesperson for Ashoka Buildcon said the company was a minority partner in the RailTel-led consortium and that “hence, we are not allowed to speak in the matter.” The spokesperson also declined to comment on when the five-year contract would commence, noting only that the stipulated completion date is March 2032.