Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Jan 21: National Highways Authority of India has finally decided to drop L&T Company to which the contract for concreting of Addahole-B C Road stretch of national highway 75 was given on contract, and to float fresh tender for the balance work. The work had reportedly stalled on account of land acquisition complications and objections raised by forest department, after which L&T, which had conducted many works on this road, had backtracked from the project.
Work on the above road had begun in 2017, but L&T had stopped work midway through the project. The NHAI officials have already sent proposal to cancel this contract and the process of cancellation is in its final stages at New Delhi, officials said. The other proposal seeking permission to call for fresh tender, is also expected to get the official nod soon.
B C Road-Addahole highway (file photo)
Once the tender is called, a period to four to five months would be needed to finalize the entire process. The company which gets the contract needs some time to complete processes and start work. By then, rainy season will set in and therefore work cannot begin before the end of the coming rainy season. The highway users might face problems to navigate this stretch of the road during rainy season as this road is prone to develop potholes.
The highway officials hope that the work will move at a faster pace once the contract is awarded, as the previous contractors had attended to work like land acquisition, levelling etc. This is a part of the plan to concrete 45 km of road from Hassan to Marnahalli in Shiradi and 63 km stretch from Addahole in Shiradi to Bantwal.
NHAI project director Somashekhar, said that the central office has been approached with recommendation to cancel contract awarded to L&T and to float fresh tender. During the road concreting this time, 16 km stretch of road between Addahole and Periyashanti will be kept out of the purview of the contract as this area falls under forest department and various environment clearances have to be obtained to make sure that wildlife is not disturbed.