Poor quality work affects Narrowguage expressway project Staff Reporter : RAIPUR A dream project of the previous Government Narrowguage expressway from Naya Raipur to Railway station Raipur is battling with the usual corruption and poor quality work. The project was started in April 2017 and the total distance of this expressway was 12 kms including 5 flyovers. The project was almost on the verge of inauguration when rains bared the quality of work. In the meanwhile there was a change in Government and Congress came to power. They ordered an inquiry into the poor quality of construction and asked the PWD the construction agency to get the work redone in parts where the quality of work was identified as shabby. Its learnt that the PWD awarded the contract for the construction of this expressway to M/S Iron Triangle Ltd. Its almost two and a half years now but the work has not been completed yet and the department has an excuse of lockdown and pandemic to narrate as the cause for the delay. The initial cost of this project was 258.11 crore but now the cost has almost increased to nearly 350 crore due to re-construction. The BJP Government wanted to complete this project before the 2018 Assembly elections. There was a lot of pressure to complete the project before time and the construction agencies overlooked quality and supervision resulting in this utter chaos. According to the department officials there was a lot of negligence at the time of filling the embankments of the flyover thats why in the first rain the embankments caved in at many places. A resident living nearby the expressway said that the people were living in fear as the retaining walls of the embankments were damaged and there was a risk of falling. The construction materials dumped also caused a lot of problems to the people living there as well as and the drainage system was completely ruined. Despite so much loss caused to the state exchequer and nuisance to the public there was no legal action against the officials and the Contractor presumably due to political connections. The Government only imposed a penalty on the contractor. The government was of the opinion that if they issue a tender again they may end up spending more money on this project thats why they only charged a penalty against the contractor. And the officers involved were suspended and their suspension to be revoked later. A consultant company named “Lion Engineering” of Bhopal was terminated and their payment of 1crore was put on hold. According to the officials before starting the traffic on this expressway 3 companies will do the safety audit if the reports of all the companies are the same only then theyll allow traffic on this expressway. MLA and Parliamentary Secretary of PWD Department Vikas Upadhyay said that the work is under process and 3 among 5 of these flyovers on this route including Telibandha Shankar Nagar and Avanti Vihar are ready and for the rest 2 the contractor has been instructed to complete it as soon as possible. And the additional cost above 258.11 crore will be borne by M/S Iron Triangle Ltd. And official sources say that the target to complete this project was June 2021 has been shifted to December 2021.

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