The proposed 4-lane Dimapur-Kohima road had remained an empty word even after more than 10 years since being promised. However, controversies are now being flavored by new hopes with another construction group having begun preliminary survey work, says our Senior Reporter Temjenrenba Anichar
DIMAPUR, JULY 29 : It was thirteen years ago, when the then prime minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Nagaland, that the ambitious project to widen the national highway connecting Dimapur and Kohima into 4-lane proper was announced.
After three elections, and thus three governments in the interim, in November last year the project was finally given seal of approval by the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways. On November 3 last year, the Union Minister for Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Jairam Gadkari had announced that the project would be divided into three phases–with each phase allotted a time-frame of 3 years to complete the construction.
While announcing the project here in Dimapur, Gadkari had also informed that the first phase would cover a length of 14.935 km, the second phase another 13.715 km and the last phase had 14.210 km coverage. The HPC approved civil cost for all the three packages was Rs 904.00 crore, he had informed back then.
On March 31 this year, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) – the agency through which the project is being implemented – issued three letters of agreement (LOA) to firms that were selected for the three phases of contract works. The selected firms were M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd and M/s Ramky-ECI (Joint Venture).
Here, M/s Ramky-ECI (JV) won bids for two packages. The first package/phase covers 14.94 Km starting from Chathe (Patkai) Bridge, which in official document has been entered as from Km 123.840 to Km 138.775 somewhere in the Medziphema region. The second package/phase starts from Km 138.775 and would cover till Km 152.49 in the Piphema region. The total length of the second package is 13.72 km.
The third package, given to M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd, starts from Km 152.49 to Km 166.700. According to an NHIDCL official, the end point Km 166.700 is at the Kohima bypass. Accordingly, the agreement between NHIDCL and M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd was signed on April 26 this year. With M/s Ramky-ECI (JV), it was signed on May 22 this year.
But on April 13 this year, local contractors under the aegis of Nagaland Contractors' & Suppliers' Union (NCSU) announced through the newspapers that they would not allow M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd to execute the 4-lane project of NH connecting Dimapur and Kohima “unless it first completes the 4 projects under SARDP Phase-I in Nagaland.”
On Wednesday last, NCSU officials told Eastern Mirror that the union still stands by their earlier assertion. Currently, the NCSU has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ECI Engineering and Construction Co Ltd –according to which the latter would sublet the contract works for the two packages to the local contractors.
Between the ECI and Ramky firms, there is also an agreement which states that “the entire work will be executed by M/s ECI Engineering and Construction Co Ltd” with regard to the two packages allotted to M/s Ramky-ECI (JV).
Thus with this agreement between the two firms in place, and with M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd being kept out of picture for now, the local contractors are dealing solely with M/s ECI Engineering and Construction Co Ltd. Again, according to the MoU between NCSU and ECI, subletting of contract to local contractors would be arranged through the construction firm of Pele Khezhie, the president of NCSU.
Thus, the recent publication through an advertisement in one of the local newspapers claiming that the ECI had “awarded the second package of 4 lane highway work (Dimapur-Kohima)” to the Hyderabad-based firm Paarth Infra has been refuted by M/s ECI Engineering and Construction Co Ltd.
A press statement from M/s ECI Engineering and Construction Co Ltd on Saturday requested “the Nagaland public to don’t (sic) consider these type (sic) of rumour statements created by some peoples.”
Though the MoU between NCCSU and ECI has been signed, they have yet to sign the actual contract agreements. This, according to NCSU officials, would be signed only when the work orders were released by the NHIDCL.
Crucially, all the three construction phases would be executed under EPC mode. This is the first time that a contract work has been allotted under EPC mode in Nagaland. EPC or Engineering, Procurement and Construction is a particular form of contract arrangement in which the contractor or the firm is solely responsible for all activities from design, procurement, construction, to commissioning and handing over the project to the end-user or the authority concerned. Also, in this system, payment of money is done only after the entire work is completed.
Currently, the ECI team is conducting a survey to initiate the construction project. Then they are expected to submit the design to the NHIDCL. The details of the entire project will emerge only after the approval of the design, according to an NHIDCL representative in Dimapur.
Only when these details emerge will the NCSU and the ECI sign the final agreement with clear-cut terms and conditions. Right now the major fear is that if the percentage, in terms of money, for the local contractors in the sublet agreement is somehow low, then the quality of works would suffer as a result. Conversely, the contracted firm would end up reaping maximum profit.
As per information available on the NHIDCL website, the total project cost for these three packages is Rs 1559.35 crore. An NHIDCL representative told Eastern Mirror on Friday that the total land compensation cost for the entire project was more than Rs 100 crore. However, it is yet to confirm whether all the affected landowners have been fully compensated or not.
