Contractors announce phase-wise shutdown of govt road, building works from April 7 over pending dues

Pune: The Maharashtra State Contractors Association (MSCA) and allied contractors' bodies have announced a phase-wise shutdown of road and govt building works across the state from April 7 to April 15, citing mounting pending dues and lack of response from the state govt.Major development works in Pune, Mumbai, Thane and other key cities are expected to be significantly affected if the slowdown continues, contractors told TOI on Monday.The association, representing contractors engaged in govt infrastructure works across departments, submitted a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Ajit Pawar, and key ministers on April 3, flagging severe financial stress due to delayed payments and urging immediate clearance of pending bills.MSCA president Milind Bhosale said on Monday that contractors would gradually slow down work on roads and govt buildings as no response had been received from the state govt despite repeated representations."We will slowly reduce the work across the state. We will be holding another meeting of all our association members on April 15 to chart the further course of action. No minister has yet spoken to us. If we slow down work, all infrastructure work that has been given to contractors will be affected. The timelines will be affected," he warned. They warned that if payments were not initiated and a meeting was not convened soon, the phase-wise shutdown could intensify, delaying infrastructure and development works across departments and affecting major road and govt building projects across the state.He said the phase-wise shutdown would impact ongoing public works department projects, govt buildings and infrastructure works in major urban centres such as Pune, Mumbai and Thane, where several road and building projects are currently underway.Bhosale said contractors had issued multiple warnings to the govt and were forced to initiate the shutdown as pending dues continued to rise after March 31, affecting nearly three lakh contractors and allied businesses dependent on govt works."After March 31, the pending dues have gone up to Rs 96,000 crore, which has affected three lakh contractors involved in state govt works," he said.According to the association members, department-wise pending works and dues remain substantial across the state.The public works department (roads and building repairs) has pending dues of around Rs29,000 crore, while Jal Jeevan Mission and Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran works account for about Rs35,000 crore. The rural development and water conservation department has pending payments of around Rs6,500 crore, and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation has dues of about Rs3,800 crore.Overall pending liabilities, contractors said, stand at around Rs96,400 crore, down from Rs1.16 lakh crore last year after the state cleared about Rs20,000 crore."In the last over one-and-a-half years, the pending bill amount went up to Rs1.16 lakh crore. Now it is around Rs96,400 crore, which means the state govt only paid around Rs20,000 crore. We hoped that in March there would be significant payments towards the pending bills, but it didn't happen," the association said in its letter.The MSCA noted that warnings were issued on Feb 26, March 3, and during a state-level meeting in Karjat on March 9, but no roadmap for payment was finalised. Contractors allege that the combination of delayed payments and a lack of new project approvals has pushed small contractors and suppliers to the brink of bankruptcy, making it impossible to pay labourers.In tandem with the strike, the Builders Association of India (BAI) has taken the matter to court. Jagannath S. Jadhav, immediate past chairman of the BAI's Maharashtra chapter, confirmed that a writ petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking the clearance of roughly Rs90,000 crore in outstanding payments."We have received barely 5% of our payments by the end of March. It is becoming impossible to run our businesses," Jadhav said, noting that a scheduled court hearing on March 27 had been postponed.