Zirakpur-Bathinda highway: Govt persuading companies to commence work, says Sharanjit Dhillon
Thursday, 27/06/2013
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/zirakpur-bathinda-highway-govt-persuading-companies-to-commence-work-says-sharanjit-dhillon/81732
CHANDIGARH: Punjab government is trying to persuade both the private companies to undertake construction work on four-laning of Zirakpur-Bathinda highway under the original terms and conditions of the tenders allotted to them last year.
The Rs 2500 crore project has been hanging fire because of delay in getting necessary environmental and allied clearances from the Union government as well as delay in the acquisition of land for the project. The two companies are also complaining that the project has become unviable for them at the old rates because of the sky-rocketing prices of sand and gravel in the state.
Tenders for the project were issued by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in March last year. Although preliminary work like felling of trees along the highway has begun, yet there has been no progress on four-laning of the highway. The issue has been reviewed by the state government with NHAI more than once and at the last meeting, in May this year, Punjab government asked NHAI to terminate the contracts of the two companies because the project had been delayed for more than a year. It was also decided to ask the companies to deposit performance security, totaling up to Rs 125 crore, but there has been no response from the companies on this so far.
Punjab minister for public works Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said that the state government was trying to reason with the two contracting companies to take up the project on priority basis. As far as high rates of sand and gravel are concerned, he said that the government was trying to resolve the issue by increasing sand mining, which in turn would bring down the rate of construction material. However, if the two companies do not see reason, fresh tenders would have to be floated, which would further delay the execution of the highway project.
