PANJIM: To save the common man from burden of additional taxation as a result of added market loans for construction of third Mandovi Bridge by the State Government, the Congress party on Sunday urged Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to refund the entire project cost to the State, since the bridge is part of National Highway.
Addressing a press conference hour before the scheduled inauguration of the cable-stayed bridge over River Mandovi by Gadkari, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar termed the project by Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation as “bridge to corruption” and “bridge for corruption”.
“GSIDC is the link for the bridge corruption. To facilitate the corruption, State government decided to construct the bridge with State funding, even as Gadkari had announced to fund the project,” he said.
Chodankar said that the estimated cost of the project as per tender document was Rs 355 crores, however, the same was allotted to L&T Infrastructure Ltd at a cost of Rs 403 crore. “But the project cost escalated by almost 50 percent as on date, with total State spending being around Rs 600 crore,” he claimed demanding that government should make public the actual cost of the project.
Congress leader said that the escalated cost will put additional taxation burden on common man. He said with State debt being over Rs 13,000 crore, every individual is with loan burden of Rs 1.25 lakh.
“The Congress party urged Gadkari to refund the entire project cost to the State government since the bridge is part of National Highway. This will also help common man from further loan or taxation burden,” Chodankar said.
Meanwhile, party is exploring possibility of moving the Vigilance or CBI with a complaint against State government for awarding electrical works to the tune of Rs 45 crore to project consultant without any tendering process. “It is a total scam. No tender was floated nor quotation was fixed,” he alleged.
Chodankar said that as per the bill submitted by the L&T towards the electrical work, it has quoted Rs 2 lakh per pole and another Rs 1.52 lakh for lighting. “There are total 592 poles fitted on the bridge,” he said alleging that the person, who supplied the electrical items, is a close relative of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
