PRATIK PARAB
Taking up works and leaving them unexecuted and incomplete has become a routine affair for Public Works Department since Margao town has several projects which have remained incomplete due to the inconsistencies of PWD.
The MRT Bhavan, Margao for the Electricity Department of South Goa was planned so that the Power House in Aquem would have ease in operation. However, this building has remained incomplete for the last four years.
Sources have informed that the Contractor who was awarded the work has fled leaving the work of the building incomplete. The present Power House building has no space left for any new plans. The building presently in use has also grown quite old and is losing its strength. Pieces of slabs on the sides of the building can be seen broken away. Thousands of workers are employed in the building and has no more space left for expansion. Looking at these problems the MRT Bhavan was planned spending crores of rupees. Four years back the 4-storeyed building was almost complete of all civil works. However, the major works of fixing tiles, electrical fixtures and other works which are required for shifting from old to new office have been delayed forever.
When contacted the Engineers of PWD said that 70% of the work of the building has been completed, however, because of the absence of interior works the offices couldn’t be shifted. Fifteen various sections of the South Zone electricity office are to be shifted to the new building.
Surprisingly the Contractor, who was executing the work, has left this job like several others which he has left incomplete. However, the payments of his works have been reportedly cleared by the Department. People have now begun demanding inquiry into the matter of execution of the MRT Bhavan. Now the PWD department is reportedly searching for a new contractor to complete the work.
The Chief Electrical Engineer of Electricity Department, who also holds the additional charge of Superintendent Engineer of Electricity, Laxmikant Kolvenkar, said, “The work of the MRT Bhavan has remained incomplete for years. The structural works are complete but is not enough to shift operations. The contractor has run away and now I have had talks with the Principal Chief Engineer of the PWD to restart the work soon,” said Kolvenkar.
The State Load Despatch Center has been presently set up in the new building by doing the interior work by the Electricity Department at their own cost. “There is a need to shift the offices of the Department to the new building as soon as possible. We have at our own cost shifted division XIV to the new building now. We have been forced to operate some of the offices from Electricity quarters due to lack of place,” told Kolvenkar.
RTI Activist Raju Ayyar said, “The Government before tendering the works of large infrastructure projects has to be informed whether the PWD has money to execute these works. Several works are awarded but the contractors are not paid as per market rates as the old estimations don’t enable the contractor to even by raw materials for the job.”
Krishna Naik from Margao said “It is sad that the work of the Bhavan has been halted. The contractors, who leave the job incomplete, have to be blacklisted and inquiry has to be initiated on why it happened.”
With crumbling space of the Old power house building and the increasing workload on to the department there is an urgent need to get the MRT Bhavan complete and running soon.
