EMN
Dimapur, May 3
The disgraced road construction company Maytas & Gayatri Joint Venture has yet again driven itself into another road block–local contractors have declared a ban on the company and its work on the four-lane Dimapur-Kohima road.
The ‘ban’ from local contractors comes amid initial threats to make sure that the company–which is accused of financial mismanagement, inflated estimation, and abandonment of road works–wouldn’t be able to undertake work on the Dimapur-Kohima highway. Unless the company completes its reportedly abandoned Special Accelerated Road Development Project (SARDP), the company will not be allowed to work on the Dimapur-Kohima highway, the Nagaland Contractors’ & Suppliers’ Union (NCSU) stated on Tuesday.
Local communities in the SARDP areas have been baying for the company’s blood for years; its dealings startled even the central government after allegations of grossly inflated finances emerged, not to mention that local contractors are against the company’s dubious dealings. Amid all this, it is a mystery how the company would secure contract for the vital Dimapur-Kohima highway when it couldn’t even complete ‘one kilometer’ of a 332 kilometer project.
The NCSU met on May 3 in Kohima and unanimously decided to ban the company from undertaking construction works on said highway “by Gayatri” unless they completed the two-lane road project under the SARDP. The organization issued a press release on Tuesday informing of the ‘ban.’
The union said that the union expressed their resentment that the SARDP was awarded to Maytas & Gayatri. The project amounted to Rs. 1,132 crore and covered 332 kilometers, the union stated. However, the union explained, the company ‘could not complete even a single kilometer till now after a gap of 5 years... (it) is a direct insult (to) the Naga people.’
The union has directed its eleven district units “to control the local contractors in their own jurisdiction.”
