NMC contractors blame engineers for slow works

Nagpur: Members of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Contractors’ Welfare Association have blamed the office of executive engineer (project) for lack of response to works sanctioned under chief minister’s fund. Tenders have been invited five to six times, but there has been no response from contractors.
C Vijay Nayudu, president of NMC Contractors’ Welfare Association, has written a letter to municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar explaining the problems faced by the contractors.
The association cited several examples of contractors facing problems due to babudom. Nayudu stated that a contractor SS Patil was suffering financially and mentally for over a year as his scope of work was changed drastically and engineers were reluctant to sanction extra item rates. “M/s Bindra Construction was facing similar problems. Engineers were harassing the contractor to execute the work as per their wishes and refusing to apply prevailing rates,” he said.
Road contractors were suffering as the EE had held up 10% additional security deposit for more than a year. There was a delay in awarding the tender for third party inspection of works. Inspection began weeks after the works were completed, he pointed out.
New works were allotted without third party inspection and in such cases also, the 10% additional security deposit of contractors has been withheld for no fault of theirs.
“Sometimes, engineers change the tender rates and then try to extract a lot from contractors. Instead of correcting norms, contractors are forced to execute works without proper drawings and include extra items. If the contractors do not agree, they are threatened with blacklisting and fines. If the contractor doesn’t comply with the demands of officials, their works are stalled and bills are not prepared. Even if bills are prepared, the amount is intentionally for less than the work done,” said Nayudu.