TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: While the Public Works Department is gearing up to start all road works by November 15, it has initiated a new proposal to extend the validity for acceptance of work orders from three to six months to ensure that contractors do not abandon works at the eleventh hour.
If one recalls, the rising cost of construction material was compelling PWD contractors to reject works already tendered to them.
During the last couple of weeks several divisions of the PWD had received intimations from successful bidders that they would not be able to take on works bagged by them due to shortage of sand and rising cost of material.
Many of the contractors, we are told took shelter under the existing provision that allowed them to reject a project if the work orders were not issued to them within three months.
The PWD realising the huge impact that this would have on its scheduled projects and deadlines has now mooted a proposal to extend the period for issue of work orders to between 150 days (five months) to 180 days (six months).
The Principal Chief Engineer PWD J S Rego said, “The proposal is in the pipeline,” and added that contractors who default will have to face action.
Rego said that the scheduled works for road repairs, reinstating, hot mixing and so on would begin by mid November and the PWD is working out ways to ensure that the works are not re-tendered even though there are cases where contractors have rejected the same.
