Nagaland Contractors’ & Suppliers’ Union (NCSU) has urged the state government and central ministry of transport and highway to expedite the process of inviting tender of SARDP Phase-I Project and ensure that local contractors were eligible to get the contract works under the programme.
In a press release, NCSU president, Pele Khezhie, and general secretary, John Kath, expressed “serious concern” over the failure of the state government to implement the order ministry of transport & highway, cancelling the work order in respect of Maytas- Gayatri, a Hyderabad based Joint Venture (JV) for construction of various roads under SARDP-I in Nagaland, which was allotted to the company on February 4, 2011.
NCSU stated that Maytas-Gayatri (JV), instead of completing the said project, had abruptly abandoned the construction work since 2014 causing untold hardship to general public.
The union also pointed out that it had on several occasions submitted representations urging the ministry of transport and highway to call for fresh tender for the construction of two-lane roads in the Nagaland under SARDP Phase-I i.e (1) Longleng-Changtongya Road (2) Mon-Tamlu, Merangkong Road (3) Phek-Pfutsero Road and (4) Zunheboto-Chakhabama Road.
Further, NCSU said it had repeatedly reminded both the centre and state government for early restoration of the abandoned works and to change the modalities in awarding contract works by breaking-up into smaller projects in order to enable the local contractors to participate in the competitive bidding.
Stating that the state government had “experienced the total failure of the so-called multi-crore company Maytas & Gayatri in this project,” NCSU said the same fate should not be repeated in the next bidding.