Meghalaya orders probe into road project scam

Shillong: Meghalaya govt has asked the police to probe into a multi-crore scam involving contractors and state engineers in the construction of a road, officials said on Monday.Nine people, including senior engineers of the state govt and officials of two private companies based in Telangana and Haryana, were named in an FIR lodged in this connection.“Several lapses forced the government to lodge an FIR into the road project amounting to over Rs 2,300 crore,” a senior official of the Public Works Department said.The road project connecting the state capital Shillong with Tura, via Nongstoin and Rongjeng, was approved in 2010 as part of the Special Road Development Programme-North East of the central govt.According to the official, the cost of the Rs 1303.83 crore initial contract was revised several times and it was enhanced to Rs 2366.77 crore. The original scheduled date of completion was 2014.Among the nine accused named in the police complaint included officials of the two private companies and the then PWD chief engineer, executive engineer and others, the official said.The FIR was filed by the PWD (NH) chief engineer AM Kharmawphlang, who relied on information provided to him during an ongoing arbitration proceedings conducted by the arbitral tribunal.The arbitration proceedings were initiated by the private companies after the department did not comply with their demands for a revised contract.“… officials/engineers in collusion with the contractors have cheated, defrauded, indulged in fabrication of record and adopted corrupt means to cause huge loss to the public exchequer,” the FIR said.PTI

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