Road construction across Goa has come to a grinding halt, with contractors suspending work amid a steep surge in input costs and mount ing bureaucratic delays, raising con cerns over infrastructure readiness ahead of the monsoon. The All-Goa Road Contractors As sociation announced the decision after a meeting in Margao, warning that projects tendered under old er rates have become financially untenable. Association president Deepak De sai said the spike in material costs — driven in part by global factors — has created an unsustainable gap between estimates and actual ex penditure. “The cost of asphalt has increased significantly, from around Rs 51,000 per tonne to nearly Rs 83,000,” he said adding that “execut ing projects at the old rates is simply not sustainable anymore.”
With most contracts pegged to outdated price bench marks, contractors say they are being forced to absorb es calating costs. “We have submitted our demand to the Pub lic Works Department for a rate revision. Until a decision is taken, all works will remain halted,” Desai said. Beyond pricing, the association has flagged systemic bottlenecks that it says are compounding the crisis. In rep resentations to the government, contractors have called for time-bound clearances and an end to procedural delays that stall projects and payments. They have sought the immediate release of security de posits after the defect liability period—without linking it to final bill clearance—and insisted that all administrative and technical approvals be completed before tenders are floated. The association has also demanded that no file re main pending with any official for more than seven days. Calling for structural reform, contractors have pushed for escalation clauses in contracts to cushion against sud den spikes in asphalt and diesel prices, while also seeking greater transparency in work allocation and stronger qual ity control mechanisms. Additional concerns include delays in bill approvals by engineers and alleged bottlenecks at the finance depart ment level, which contractors say are choking cash flow and slowing execution. The association has warned that unless both rate revi sions and procedural reforms are addressed urgently, the suspension will continue—potentially disrupting road read iness across the state just weeks before the monsoon sets in.
