EMN
DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 21
CHIEF Engineer, PWD (NH), Er. Peter Solo has made certain clarifications with regard to the contractors having expressed their inability to maintain SARDP roads and to put all doubts on the PWD (NH) to rest.Reacting to a news item carried in local dailies on September 21 wherein the contractors, Maytas-Gayatri Joint Venture Ltd., have expressed their inability to maintain SARDP project roads due to non-payment of huge amounts to the firm, the Chief Engineer in a press communiqué on Saturday clarified that payment for the SARDP works is made by MoRT&H and not by the State Government. Moreover, the earthwork quantity in the sanctioned estimate is far below what is actually on the site and the payment of excess quantity cannot be made unless revised estimate is approved by MORT&H, he said and added that therefore, some amount of bill is pending for a year-and-a-half.
The communiqué also said the escalation bill amounting to Rs 2.50 crore is to be paid by the Regional Office of the MORT&H, Guwahati. The amount is pending due to inadequate recovery of the advances by the contractor and insufficient bank guarantee protection towards mobilization advance, it said.
The Chief Engineer recalled that the Executive Engineer PWD (NH) Mokokchung Division has written a letter to the Superintending Engineer NH Circle-I, Kohima stating that the representative of the company does not pay attention to the inconveniences being faced by the people of Longleng district.
The communiqué further said the Office of the Chief Engineer PWD (NH) has directed the contractor on numerous occasions to maintain all the four roads under construction.
