Flyover to get new hands

Flyover to get new hands

Deccan Herald

The much-delayed Airport Road flyover is in the news again, but for all the wrong reasons. For the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has proposed to entrust the project to the ‘next bidder’, after deciding to terminate the contract with the UP State Bridges Corporation (UPSBC).

With the termination of the contract, the project on the busy Airport Road has come to a grinding halt. This, in other words, means that the flyover will not be ready for traffic by June 2005, as per the BDA deadline. The project still has over 70 per cent of work pending and needs, at least, an additional eight months to complete, official sources from the BDA told Deccan Herald.

Similarly, work on the Jayadeva Circle Underpass too has hit a hurdle. For the BDA has terminated the contract (with UPSBC again) and re-tendered the pending work worth Rs 10.50 crore. Nearly 80 per cent of the work is left, and the project is expected to be completed only by December 2005, sources said.

Work on both the projects commenced in November 2003. The projects were scheduled to be completed in April, 2004. But they were delayed as the contractor (UPSBC for both projects) stopped the work for nearly six months, demanding escalation in cost (Rs 5.5 crore), which was later fulfilled.

Sources said the BDA has now proposed to award the pending work on the Airport Road flyover to the next bidder as per the original contract, and the proposal is presently pending before the government.

If the government approves the BDA proposal, it will lose nearly Rs 8 crore, as the next bidder (Gammon India Limited) has quoted Rs 34 crore against the UPSBC’s claim of a total of Rs 26.99 crore. “As the UPSBC has done around Rs 9 crore work, Gammon India Limited has demanded Rs 25 crore to complete the pending work on the flyover,” sources said.

Additional funds
With respect to the Jayadeva underpass, the BDA itself has called for Rs 10.50 crore worth of work, while the actual work pending (as per the contract with the UPSBC) is over Rs 6 crore. “BDA has increased the project cost by Rs 4 crore on its own as there is some technical fault in the project design,” sources said.
The water level in the ground where the underpass is proposed to be located was wrongly estimated from the surface. “This has included additional works like de-watering, reinforcement and others worth Rs 3 crore,” sources said.

When contacted, BDA Commissioner M N Vidyashankar, however, refused to comment on the work of the Airport Road flyover. “We have re-tendered the Jayadeva underpass project as the contractor failed to keep up the pace of work. UPSBC is a sick company and they cannot stick to our deadline. BDA is losing its credibility because of this,” he stated, adding that the work will be resumed soon and will be completed by August, 2005.

On hiked costs, Mr Vidyashankar said that the cost of steel and cement has gone up considerably in the last two years. Besides, UPSBC has underquoted the project. So, BDA has decided to hike the cost by Rs 4 crore. But he denied that there was any technical fault in the project design.