NEW DELHI, July 9 (TNN): In the past 17 months, the government has paid at least Rs 300 crore for construction of four roads in Nagaland, but not a single kilometre has been completed. What has stumped the highways ministry is that the Nagaland government wants it to revise the estimate which is almost two-and-a-half times more than the original cost - from Rs 1,296 crore to Rs 2,988 crore.
Though in almost all cases the final cost of road projects in the north-east turns out to be more than the original estimate because of adverse conditions, in this case, the exceptional high variation has created a scare in the ministry. Now, the ministry is considering to get this case investigated by a central agency.
In a major policy change, the highways ministry in 2010 had started clubbing small projects together to attract major players. Consequently, two-laning of four roads - Longleng-Changtongya, Mon-Tamlu-Merangkong, Phek-Pfutzero and Zunheboto-Chakabama - totaling 329 km was cleared, though these are four standalone roads. Nagaland PWD prepared the project estimate and work was awarded to M/s Maytas-Gayatri (JV) through competitive bidding.
Sources said the contractor undertook only excavation work during the past year and this has exceeded the original estimated/sanction quantity - over 3-4 times in some stretches. “Nagaland PWD has cited this reason for revising the cost,” said a source.
Officials said such variation was abnormal and could not be sanctioned. So, the Centre stopped processing of releasing the budget and the contractor stopped work. “This is a case of deficient estimate preparation by the state PWD. In January, we asked Nagaland government to take punitive action against the consultant and engineer concerned for their fault,” a ministry official said.
On its part, the contractor claimed that in January - five months after it started work - it asked Nagaland government to submit the revised estimate after it found the excavation work sanctioned in the original plan was inaccurate. “It is an item-rate contract and the bid document said the quantity of earthwork is tentative and only drawing is final. We followed this. Moreover, Nagaland PWD wrote to us to go ahead with the work,” said a contractor’s representative.
