[Assam] Bogibeel: Mahanta says Railway Board’s neglect led to Rs 108-cr loss (The Sentinel,18.10.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

        Bogibeel: Mahanta says Railway Board’s neglect led to Rs 108-cr loss
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Oct 17: The much-acclaimed Bogibeel Rail-cum-Road Project in Dibrugarh district will not be completed within the stipulated time-frame (rescheduled), December 2011, mainly due to the negligence towards the region by the Railway Board and the Ministry of Railways. Now the project cannot be completed before 2012, said former Asom Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today.
Talking to newsmen, Mahanta blamed it on the Railway Board for not passing some specific files on construction deals of the project on, what he said, a few motivated and suspicious grounds that would hardly affect the construction of the project. The only file on piling work that the Railway Board had passed on April 30, 2007 to Hindustan Construction Company Limited (HCCL) was also reportedly not accepted by the company on the ground of escalation of prices of construction materials manifold, Mahanta said, and added that had the Railway Board passed the file by April 23, 2007 the HCCL would have been legally bound to execute the project work. “Now the Railways will have to call retender on piling work at Bogibeel if the HCCL doesn’t start the work, and that will lead to waste of around Rs 108 crore for unnecessary extending the period of sanction,” Mahanta said.
Going back to the history of the project, Mahanta said that the first tender on piling work of Bogibeel bridge across the Brahmaputra was invited in August 2004, and three bidders — HCCL, L & T and AFCONS— were technically qualified. NF Railway estimated the cost of piling work at Rs 306 crore. HCCL put its cost at Rs 292 crore and the bid was favourably forwarded to the Railway Board, which, however, sought a six-month extension period against the four-month holiday period. Finally, a retender notice was sought, and this time the Railways estimated the piling cost at Rs 360 crore. HCCL again became the lowest bidder at Rs 366 crore, but the bid is being delayed pushing the situation for calling a retender again, Mahanta said. The former Chief Minister, quoting market experts, said that the next bidding would not be less than Rs 400 crore leading to the wastage of Rs 108 crore. “Who will bear the wastage of this public money? Who has given the right to the Railway Board and
 the Ministry of Railways to play an irrational game with the people of the North-east?” Mahanta questioned. 
It may be mentioned here that the estimated cost of the rail-cum-road project that was sanctioned in 1997-98 was Rs 1,767 crore, and the expenditure till today is Rs 647 crore. It is, however, a well known fact that the cost of the project has escalated manifold.
     (The Sentinel,18.10.2007)



       
---------------------------------
 DELETE button is history. Unlimited mail storage is just a click away.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://assamnet.org/pipermail/assam_assamnet.org/attachments/20071018/bc6c361c/attachment.html