The brutal Maths which fumbled Goa Government : Rs.40 Lac investment and 100% revenue or 30% revenue instead.
BeltechAI, the Dharwad based company which installed the new TMS at Panjim has no prior track-record to showcase. It could recoup investment in just 4 months.
Mathematics is a difficult subject for most of us individuals, but sometimes the brutality of the subject is evident in the manner, in which governments make decisions. This is about how Goa Government fumbled in Mathematics.
This week, with great fanfare, the Computer Vision powered traffic management system was launched at Panjim, by Chief Minister and Transport Minister of Goa.
The system developed and installed by a Dharwad(Karnataka) based company, BeltechAI, costed Rs.40 Lac.
The government of Goa, awarded the contract to BeltechAI, which provisions that 70% of the revenue, would accrue to the company, while government would get 30%. The project was undertaken under PPP (Public Private Partnership).
Government of Goa, plans to install this traffic management system at 16 locations across Goa.
The report by The Goan Everyday, amply highlights that, being the busiest traffic junction of Goa, at Merces, if all goes well, the revenue earned by BeltechAI would not only cover the total cost of the installation, but also would give it a very handsome profit within 4 months.
Now, let's look at the math of the deal; and the uncommon-sense of it.
PPP projects are undertaken where the government is not being able to make the initial investment, due to paucity of fund, because of the scale of investment required.IS it the case here, NO.
What is Rs.40 Lac against Rs.4 Crores? Please do the math.
While operating a Ferry Boat is a public service, the new traffic management system deployed is a source of unmitigated revenue, and a highly profitable one.
From tomorrow, ie 20th March, the automatic challan would start getting issued; and government would get only 30% of it.
While, if the government would have agreed to invest Rs.40 Lac ( full advance or lump-sum payment is not required), they could have paid for the project, from the revenue generated from the Merces junction itself.
As the revenue keeps coming in the surplus could have been easily deployed for deploying such system at rest of the 16 places.
But according to the math done by prudent public and government servants of Goa; it makes more sense to take 30% revenue, instead of investing Rs.40 Lac. Probably, Goa government should have used AI to solve such a difficult mathematical question.
Let's talk about paucity of funds, Goa government spent Rs.25 Lac on training it's MLA by an obscure NGO for just 2 days last year.
We are still not talking about the efficacy of the exercise, just plain numbers. So, there could not be paucity of funds, for such an important project, which could not just bring in revenue but save lives of the citizens of goa.
Now,let's talk about BeltechAI. It's website shows no prior projects installed anywhere else, in India.It's impact page has just a series of graphs with self-proclaimed figures, with no proven data from real-life installed systems to substantiate their claim So Goa is their such first project.
No previous track record but still the government agrees to forsake 70% of the revenue. Why?
Very easy to guess...
Funny thing is, the supposedly AI company is still stuck in 2021.
So, the question now is, whether Maths of this decision of taking only 30% of the revenue from new TMS was tough, or is it an actually an act of commission and Mathematics is actually a very simple subject; provided you have common-sense.