Chhatrapur: Projects under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the Ganjam district have been delayed for a long. Even though the contract periods have been completed, works on the projects have failed to make any headway.
In this regard, many letters had been issued to the concerned contractors from the Rural Works Department (RWD), Ganjam-2. But the contractors did not pay any heed to these letters. This situation had arisen as the main contractors had given these contracts to small-time contractors. Show cause notices had been issued to these defaulter contractors from the superintending engineer, RWD, Ganjam -2. The reply was sought from these contractors within seven days of receiving the letter as to why the contracts of these contractors shall not be cancelled and why a penalty shall not be charged to these contractors under section SBD clause 52.2 (A), (H). Three contractors were served show cause notice last week for inordinate delay in five road projects while two more contractors were served the same this week, taking the tally to five.
On the other hand, delays and irregularities in various PMGSY works in Ganjam have been coming to notice. It has been learned that a Central monitoring team will visit Ganjam in this regard to supervise and verify the status of the works done under PMGSY. A letter has been issued in this regard to the Odisha Engineer-inChief (Rural Works) from the Ministry of Rural Development. Subsequently, a letter from the Engineer-in-Chief (Rural Works) Odisha has been sent to the Berhampur MP, Ganjam district Collector and the engineers of the Rural Works department.
In the letter, he instructed us to keep all the documents related to the projects ready for verification. The Berhampur MP was also requested to be available during the Central monitoring team’s visit. It has been mentioned in the letter that Anil Kumar Jain will lead the Central monitoring team and the date and time of his arrival will be communicated to all.
As per reports, PMGSY work had started through a contractor 8 September 2021 from P Jagannathpur to Bhalikhalia via S Gopalpur, Sunaripalli, and Purunagarh. This project had to be completed by June 7, 2022. But even after 8 months beyond the deadline of the project, only 47.92 per cent of work worth Rs 118.15 lakh has been completed. Owing to this inordinate delay, a show cause notice has been issued to the concerned contractor by the superintendent engineer.
Similarly, PMGSY works on NH326 Pudamari PWD road via Khairapadar, Gunduriguda, B. Adikandapur, Telapalli was started September 9, 2022. The project deadline for this work had been set for next month. But as of now only 20.73 per cent of work has been completed with the expenditure of Rs 35.65 lakh.
