Contractor Pays Heavily For Delaying Six-Laning Of Old Madras Road

Delay work by a day, shell out Rs 44,000
Contractor Pays Heavily For Delaying Six-Laning Of Old Madras Road
The Times of India


Bangalore: Delay pays: A fine of Rs 44,000 per day has been slapped on a contractor for delaying widening of the Old Madras Road (OMR)! And he could end up paying a penalty of up to Rs 1.17 crore for a nine-month delay.

The Old Madras Road sixlaning, given to Kasargodbased Chandragiri construction company, was to be completed on February 20. But, hardly 40 per cent of the work has been done. The contractor, who claimed financial distress, has now promised to complete the work by November. The nine month delay could cost him Rs 1.17 crore at Rs 44,000 per day, for 267 days!

PWD (NHAI division) officials told The Times of India: “We are slapping penalty on the contractor. We wanted to terminate his contract and re-tender the road, but he promised to complete it within November. We felt this would be faster than re-tendering, so we have given him one more chance to complete the road.’’

Of late, the PWD and the NHAI have gone for the jugular on most contracts. “Fine and termination threats ensure they do the work,’’ officials maintained.

The OMR is a case in point: The road has become a serious bottleneck, with all traffic going towards Whitefield, Kolar and Chennai crawling along on the road. The traffic density of this road is a huge 70,000 passenger carrying units (PCUs) per day — twice that of the Bangalore-Mysore road.

Work on six-laning was taken up in February 2004. From then on, the problem has been the same — the contractor had financial and labour problems. Work was stalled from February 16 to April 24 and resumed 12 days ago, after PWD (NHAI) officials threatened to terminate the contract.

The Rs 8.37 crore project was touted as the answer to traffic jams on Airport Road and Whitefield area. The plan is to make the HAL railway track -Benniganahalli stretch a six-lane, the K R Puram cable-stayed bridge-Devasandra a four-lane (with service roads) and another six-lane half a km towards Chennai.

The worry is: Monsoon can cause further delay, for which the contractor cannot be penalised.

ROAD TO CHENNAI

n Can reach speeds up to 100 km per hour.
n Per km cost Rs 78 lakh.
n Road thickness slightly over half metre (0.575 m).
n Pedestrian subway near crowded Ganapathi temple at K R Puram, 40 % over.