Flyover work: BDA, contractor sing different tunes

Flyover work: BDA, contractor sing different tunes
The Times of India

Bangalore: Two days after being rebuked by the High Court for changing c o n t r a c t o r s midway through its Airport Road and Jayadeva projects, it is still unclear if the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) met its original project contractor yet.

While BDA commissioner M.N. Vidyashankar told The Times of India on Friday that the authority just had its first meeting with Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation (UPSBC), deputy projects manager with UPSBC, A.C. Garg, said he knew nothing about such a meeting. “Till date, BDA has not contacted us. Maybe the agency contacted our headquarters in Lucknow; BDA officials have certainly not spoken to us,’’ he stressed.

But Vidyashankar said “discussions (on costs and deadlines) will start today. UPSBC cannot deviate from the statement they gave to court.’’

Garg, on his part, said his corporation is eager to complete its work. “For the past seven-eight months, we have been idle here. In the history of our company, we have never gone to court over a project,’’ he said.

UPSBC managing director K.K. Mittal will be visiting Bangalore on July 1. “We will disclose more details then,’’ he added.
Long-pending: Both projects should have been completed in April 2004. And each day of delay pushes up costs even more.

More than that, citizens are being put to great hardship. Things have become so bad that civic groups and citizens recently held a ‘silent protest’ at the Airport Road-Indiranagar-Intermediate Ring Road junction against the inordinate delay.