GUWAHATI, Oct 30 - Having terminated two major four-lane highway projects in the State with Spanish firm Corsan Corvium SA, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) has put on watch-list a number of other contractors who have been now given monthly targets with a warning that if they fail to show good progress they will have to face the music.
NHIDCL managing director NN Sinha, on his second visit to the State, travelled by road from Guwahati to Tezpur on Sunday and took stock of the progress of works, before reviewing the status of various projects in the region today with top officials here.
�We have carried out a detail review of the works. We have found that a few contractors are not keen to work. There is no intent to mobilize the equipment and materials. There is hardly any progress in those stretches,� Sinha admitted while speaking to The Assam Tribune on Monday evening.
He referred to stretches like Nagaon bypass to Rangapara, Jamuguri to Biswanath and Moran to Bogibeel where progress of work has been tardy. �We have put these contractors on watch-list. We have given them monthly targets. They have been warned that in case they are not able to show visible progress within the next couple of months, they will have to face action,� the MD said.
He also said the NHIDCL has decided to call for bids for maintenance of at least ten stretches � on both NH-37 and 52 � at the risk and cost of the contractors to whom he works have been already allotted. �We hope to finalize the bids by November 10 and assign new contractors for the maintenance works,� the MD said.
Some contractors raised a few problems they were facing, like release of payments and extension of time, which, Sinha said, �are being looked into.�
An NHIDCL team will hold a discussion with the State government officials this week on certain bottlenecks the agency was facing like problems related to land acquisition, evacuation, illegal encroachments, other obstructions, etc.
Earlier, the NHIDCL had terminated two contracts with Spanish firm Corsan Corvium SA for four-laning of the 44-km Jhanji-Demow stretch and 37.8-km Jorhat-Jhaji stretch in the wake of poor progress of work.
TK Engineering Consortium Pvt Ltd has been served notice for slipshod work on two highway stretches � the 18.4-km Nagaon bypass-Rangapara stretch (Rs 159.2 crore) and the Jamuguri-Biswanath stretch.
The four-laning work from Nagaon to Dibrugarh had been divided into eight sections. Progress in all these stretches has been extremely poor, triggering widespread criticism from public.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has also raised the issue with Union minister Nitin Gadkari during his recent visit to Delhi.
