EMN
DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 16
THE Nagaland Contractors’ & Suppliers Union (NCSU0 has appealed to the Governor of Nagaland to cancel the work order issued to the ‘tainted and incompetent’ Maytas Gayatri Joint Venture, the company that abandoned a major road project in Nagaland before completion.
The local people are currently up in arms against the dubious company which abandoned and derelict the Longleng-Changtongya road, Mon-Tamlu-Merangkong road, Phek-Pfutsero road and the Zunheboto-Chakhabama Road under the Special Accelerated Road Development Program for north east states under Nagaland.
The NCSU issued a copy of representation addressed to the Governor of Nagaland on Tuesday. “despite repeated please made by the general public through the media for completion of the project it appears that it has fallen on deaf ears. The work has been abandoned and the people are facing untold difficulties,” the contractors stated. “Due to non maintenance of the road, the journey of the people travelling in this route has increased considerably. Besides, escalations of prices of essential commodities are taking place taking a heavy toll on our people.”
Ever since the project was approved, the contractor stated, the contractors had been urging both the state and central governments to award work to competent local contractors who knew the topography and terrain of the state. They had demanded that the work should be ‘broken up’ according to items so that local contractors would be able to participate.
However, the NCSU stated, the government clubbed the four roads into one and floated international bidding which deprived local contractors from participating. The work was then allotted to Maytas Gayatri of Hyderabad. Nonetheless, the local stakeholders were expecting that the work would be executed efficiently, the NCSU stated, but the situation is different and far from what the people had expected.
“By the state government’s own admission, the firm is incompetent ad has failed to execute the work on time,” the NCSU stated. “Whereas the work should have been completed by February 17, 2014, the work completed by the firm is only 20.18% as on February 15 2014. This clearly implies that the firm has total disregard for the project and the sufferings of the people.”
The union has said to be “running out of patience” at the silence of the state and central government at the issue even though it had found repeated outcry widely in the state. “Hence, it is our ardent desire that you convey to the ministry to immediately revoke the work order allotted to Maytas & Gayatri… and allot it to competent and suitable local contractors to finish the unfinished task whereby the sufferings of our people shall be ameliorated.”
