The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will not take possession of the 37.5-km four-lane Port connectivity project from Bantwal up to Surathkal unless Ircon, the contractor executing the project on their behalf, addresses various lacunaes brought to their notice. NHAI will continue to make part payment to Ircon in the interim period to ensure continuity, P George Modayil, team leader of the project of NHAI said.
Replying to issues raised on inferior quality of 4-lane highway under Port connectivity project of NHAI by Praveen Chandra Shetty, chairman, road safety sub-committee, KCCI, at a meeting here on Monday, George admitted that the riding quality along some stretches of this highway was not good. "We will undertake a bump integrator test as well as examine the highway using a core cutting machine to check for the quality of the road," he said.
NHAI has repeatedly brought up various issues pertaining to the project to Ircon and they have promised to address our concerns, he said adding that there is no provision to blacklist a contractor merely because a small part of the project component is not up to the mark. The cost of construction of the flyovers at Kuntikana and Kottara represents a small portion of the total original project cost of Rs 194 crore, he noted.
Defending the payment to Ircon, George said not doing so would derail the entire project. Due diligence is being observed before clearing the payments, he said adding not making payments to Ircon would result in total closure of project work. Finding a new contractor at this stage would entail a further delay of at least one to two years, he said adding that the thinking on part of NHAI bosses is to get the project executed through Ircon itself.
The project was awarded to Ircon in 2005 with a 30-month completion time. However, the project could take off only in 2007 due to land acquisition problems. Time over run to the extent of nearly twice the original period of completion is perhaps bleeding Ircon financially, which could well be dipping in to its internal funds to complete the same, he said, adding that it is highly unlikely that Ircon could meet the June 2011 deadline for the project.
Praveen later at a joint inspection of a stretch of the project from Nanthoor up to Kodikal drew the attention of the authorities to the inferior quality of work executed by Ircon. Ravindra K G, assistant commissioner of police, Gopalkrishna Bhat, traffic PSI, Keshava Dharani, senior motor vehicle inspector, Vijay Kumar, principal, KPT, M S Natraj, HoD of civil engineering, KPT and Vijayakumari Shenoy, joint commissioner, MCC were present.
Courtesy: Times of India
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