Govt cracks whip on errant water supply project contractors
The government has finally swung into action against contractors who have repeatedly failed to meet the deadlines in the city’s vital water supply project.
While one contractor has already been terminated from further engagement in the multi-crore project, an official said that action would soon be initiated against another who has been found to lag behind in completion of the work allocated to him.
Now, according to Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program (AUIIP), after the various delays, the project that was supposed to have been completed by December last year will now be completed only by 2021 if it doesn’t hit any further snags.
The AUIIP has a total outlay of Rs 1105.81 crores for the project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The project is estimated to supply 98 million litres of water daily by December 2017, but it has suffered snags at regular intervals due to the errant behaviour of contractors.
“Due to non-performance, the original contractor M/S IVRCL was terminated back in December 2015. After that, the contracts were put on for bidding again and were awarded to a different contractor, M/S Shivam Transcon (P) Limited. But, even after completion of more than one and half years, one of the contractors showed zero progress for which the termination notice was served in December this year. Due to such non compliance of the contractors, the project delayed a lot,” an official at AUIIP said.
ADB is funding 77.4 per cent amounting to Rs 855.90 crores of the project while the state government has contributed Rs 214.91 crores. The work was supposed to be completed in two phases and a loan amount of Rs 146.9 crores was already sanctioned by the bank for the first phase.
Due to the negligence of contractors, 53 per cent of the sanctioned money has already been spent while only 17 per cent of the work for the first phase had so far been completed, a AUIIP report revealed.
“A total of Rs 62.19 crores – Rs 46.17 crores of ADB loan and Rs 16.02 crores of the contribution by the state government - have already been spent. ADB will sanction the second instalment of Rs 709 crores after completion of the first phase only,” the official added.
In the first phase, three contracts were floated for the construction of three storage reservoirs at Gopal Nagar (17 million litres), North Jyoti Nagar (3.2 million litres) and Kenduguri (3.6 million litres) for Rs 37.11 crores, construction of three other reservoirs at Hengerabari (13 million litres), Nabajyoti Nagar (3.2 million litres) and Basistha (5 million litres) for Rs 30.8 crores and construction of transmission of pipelines for Rs 78.99 crores.
Sivam Transcon had bagged the first two projects and M/S Tirupati Cement Products got the third contract.
“The pipe-laying works are the only section that showed good product. Almost 8.37 kilometres out of a total of 23.7 km has already been completed. The works of the reservoir for the first contract saw only 16.35 per cent completion while the rest three reservoir’s works in the second contract has not started yet due to which, the contractor was served termination notice,” the official said.
Despite several attempts, Shivam Transcon could not be contacted for a comment on the termination of the contract.
Project delayed due to lack of public cooperation: AUIIP
AUIIP has alleged that lack of public cooperation has also contributed to the delay in the completion of the water supply project in Guwahati.
Even though there was not much resistance from the locals in the reservoir construction works at Gopalnagar, North Jyotinagar and Kenduguri , land for reservoirs at Hengerabari and Basistha of the second contract have still remain disputed.
"We couldn’t initiate construction works in Basistha and Hengrabari due to protest from the locals despite the fact that the land belongs to the government. The government had attempted negotiation with the locals at several instances, but failed to convince them,” an official of AUIIP said.
The plot at Basistha is behind a school where some local bodies have been protesting against the construction which was subsequently shifted to Panchakanya hills. In Hengrabari, which is also a government owned land currently used as a cemetery for Karbi people, the engineers and construction workers had been attacked by locals.
The official added, “In the Hengrabari location, with police protection, we had been able build the walls. But after that, the locals had abducted the engineers. The land is a cemetery and considered holy to them. We are in talks and if that fails, we will have to relocate.”