MARGAO: In an astonishing development, the Public Works Department (NH), has prepared and paid off a bill worth Rs 2 crore to the contractor entrusted with the repair work of the Railway Over Bridge (ROB) at Margao, much before the completion of the work.
The residents under the banner of Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) have called upon the PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral for a joint inspection of the Margao ROB and to check for himself the shoddy work executed by his department.
Accompanied by other members Jose Maria Miranda, Edward Lourenco, Loyola Rodrigues, Carlos Gracias, Zacarias Goes, Dinesh Kakodkar etc, the SCM Convenor Savio Coutinho informed the mediapersons that as they were checking upon the substandard works executed by the PWD (NH) on the ROB, they were shocked to tumble on an unbelievable fact that the PWD (NH), prepared and paid off a bill worth Rs 2 crore much before the execution of work to the contractor entrusted with the repair work of the ROB.
“We always thought that such things happen in other States, but have realised that Goa too has mastered this art of loot,” Coutinho lamented.
Giving details of the work, Coutinho stated that the PWD National Highway Division XIV had tendered a work titled ‘Rehabilitation of various bridge’s on NH17 (New NH66) i.e. Ordhofond Bridge, Margao ROB and Mashem Bridge for a tendered amount of Rs 6,25,67,680. The work order for the same was issued to M/s Trimurthi Construction, Sawantwadi, Sindhudurg Maharashtra on July 26, 2021 for a contract price of Rs 5, 99, 99,994, which was the bid amount at 4.10 per cent below of the contractor.
“Out of the total estimated cost for the three bridges, the estimated cost for the Margao ROB was pegged at Rs 2, 24, 34,573 (excluding GST). And while the estimates list a total number of 16 different work items for the Rs 2.24 crore job,” he informed.
He said that the RTI information obtained revealed that a total amount of Rs 2 crore was paid to the contractor.
He further said that 10 of the 16 items estimated have been ‘paid as executed’, but claimed that only 8 of the 10 paid items were actually executed, though substandard.
“The remaining two items such as dismantling of pavement and providing drainage sprouts, together worth Rs 4,51,066 have been included in the bill even though they have not been executed as there was no scope for such an item to be executed,” Coutinho charged.
And the most shocking fact about these bills paid for works pertaining to the Margao ROB is that the bills are ‘recorded as executed’ as early as February 8, 2022 and February 28, 2022, at a time when the work had just commenced, Coutinho charged further.
The SCM strongly demanded that the concerned engineers should be immediately suspended and a vigilance inquiry should be ordered in this scam.
