TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: Water Resources Department on Monday defended its decision to de-silt river Sal near the Khareband bridge departmentally after cancelling the tender for want of funds.
Even as contractors raised eyebrows over the de-silting work being carried out departmentally after cancelling the tender citing “administrative reasons,” senior WRD officials said there was nothing hanky panky in its decision.
WRD Superintending Engineer S V Parbhavalkar admitted to Herald that the WRD had issued a short tender notice for de-silting and clearing the vegetation of tributary of river Sal near the Khareband bridge at an estimated cost of Rs 14.13 lakh.
The tender was floated on May 17, but before the department could issue the tender documents on May 27 it was cancelled by WRD Executive Engineer, P P D’Souza due to administrative reasons.
“We had to cancel the tender after the District Collector, South, maintained that he has no funds at his disposal to fund the work. Since funds to the tune of Rs 14.23 lakh were required to take up the work, we decided to cancel the tender and carry out the work departmentally. There’s nothing hanky panky behind the decision,” Parbhavalkar defended.
Contractors, who had applied for the work, however, say that the WRD should come out clear and explain from where they have procured the heavy machinery to carry out the de-silting work.
What’s interesting to note is that this is the first time that vegetation is being cleared from both sides of Sal for smooth flow of monsoon water. WRD sources said they have taken up the de-silting work on the instructions of the Collector.
It is not known which agency will fund the de-silting work even as Margao Municipal Chief Officer Deepali Naik said the Municipality would make the payments after seeking approval from the Director of Municipal Administration.
