Opposition upset over AMC's preference for contractor

AHMEDABAD: Is the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) favoring contractors by giving them extensions and even decreasing the amount of contracted work to reduce the penalty burden? This, despite the contractors not completing their projects on time. Several AMC contractors have raised objections with the standingcommittee against this practice and have made submissions to the, the oppositionparty, Congress as well. In the February 17 standing committee meeting, a Rs 43.98 crore storm water drain project under the JNNURM scheme for the Vatva area saw the standing committee undervaluing the contracted work to Rs 18.13 crore. This was an unusual practice. The contractor had delayed the storm water drain project and had sought a 13-month extension. This extension was also approved for the contractor Gokul Krishna Private Ltd. "Thecontractors had objected to the fact as to how an already contracted work'svalue of Rs 49 crore was reduced to Rs 18 crore to suit the contractors'financial situation, and that too after 13 months of delay from the actualproject deadline. One has to check whether such a provision is there or nor.Instead of charging a penalty at the rate of 0.1 per cent per day of theprevious contract amount-that is Rs 49 crore, the penalty was calculated as perthe new contract rate of Rs 18 crore. "The original detailed projectreport for the storm water drain is worth Rs 320 crore sent under the JNNURMhead to Delhi. We now suspect that the DPR prepared by the consultant too hadoverestimated the value of the storm water drain project," says a seniorstanding committee member.The Opposition has now raised objectionsto the fact that if Gokul Krishna Private Limited were extended the waiver thenthey too should be eligible for such a facility.