Pay contractors so that we get our dues: Suppliers to NMC

Nagpur: Material suppliers to contractors engaged in civic works have approached the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) requesting it to clear outstanding bills of their clients which in turn will enable them to get their dues.
The Nagpur Municipal Corporation Contractors’ Welfare Association too has urged the NMC to clear payments immediately since a majority of the contractors were not in a position to complete unfinished works forget about taking up new works in the city. The association submitted a memorandum to standing committee chairman Vijay Zalke explaining their difficulties.
TOI learnt that the civic body has not paid bills of contractors since September 2019 and the outstanding amount due from the NMC is about Rs400 crore for various works taken up by several contractors. “Contractors have been doing the rounds of NMC for payments,” association members told TOI. “If no efforts were made to clear our dues, the contractors will launch an agitation soon,” association president Vijay Nayudu told TOI.
“Bill are pending since very long whereas the office-bearers and engineers are pursuing the contractors to complete the unfinished works,” Nayudu stated in the memorandum.
He further said that contractors managed to complete their work by borrowing money and material from suppliers with the hope that dues would be cleared, but that did not happen.
“The last payment NMC released was a meagre amount against the pending dues of around Rs500 crore. It did not serve any purpose. Now, the situation is such that neither the supplier is lending us materials nor we are able to borrow from the market to complete the pending works,” said a contractor.
All this has frustrated the contractors so much that many are suffering from depression which may led to untoward incident as creditors have started pressing for their dues.
Even Ultratech Concrete (the ready-mix concrete division of Ultratech Cement Ltd) has approached the NMC seeking its support by releasing the outstanding payment towards contractors. In a letter to municipal commissioner, the firm pointed out that it had supplied cement to most of the NMC contractors for concrete road project by assessing their credibility in the market.
However, for almost a year now, the outstanding dues of approximately Rs46.10 lakh have not been released to the firm by the contractors citing non-disbursement of funds by the NMC, the company pointed out.
As a result, the firm has restricted cement supplies for concretization of roads. This has led to slower progress of many ongoing cement roads across the city.
Sources also pointed out that bills got certified from the NMC’s public works department, but are pending with accounts and finance department.
Admitting that bills were pending for long, Zalke assured that the corporation was making efforts to clear them. “We are aware of the situation and are in touch with our contractors. In view of the Covid-19 crisis, we are arranging funds to clear pending bills of contractors as soon as possible,” said Zalke.