Contractor settles for Rs15.25cr compensation against Rs450cr claim

Nagpur: Top civil contractor M/s Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited (SPCPL), Mumbai, has reportedly agreed to settle for Rs15.25 crore compensation against its claim of Rs450 crore.
The Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) on Friday submitted the final settlement of SPCPL before its board meeting chaired by chairman Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, which gave its approval to foreclose the work of SPCPL for the tenderSURE project.
“Remaining work of tenderSURE project will be studied in terms of feasibility, technical requirement on the ground, and after doing all analysis, NSSCDCL will issue tender. If possible, multiple agencies will be given the work to ensure the project gets completed in time,” said NSSCDCL chief executive officer Chinmay Gotmare.
Though the company agreed to reduce its claim significantly, it was firm on not executing the ongoing civil works in area-based development at Punapur, Bharatwada and Pardi further.
With this development, now NSSCDCL will have to search for another contractor to execute the project smoothly. One of the biggest issues for development is the rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected people, admitted Gotmare.
Against Rs650 crore TenderSURE project, the firm was supposed to construct 49.76km roads, 28 bridges and culverts, four elevated storage reservoirs, and allied civil works. But it has managed to complete only works on 12.36km road length, one major bridge, nine minor bridges and four ESRs. However, NSSCDCL has not updated data on work completion percentage of ongoing projects of the firm.
The firm had claimed compensation of Rs450 crore citing several issues including non-availability of entire work front, which TOI had reported on Friday.
After the whopping compensation claim, NSSCDCL discussed the issue at length in its board meeting. Later, a joint inspection along with representatives of M/s SPCPL and NSSCDCL was carried out wherein joint measurement of all executed works was carried out before the closure of extended contract period up to June 30, 2022. Based on the report, full and final settlement against submission of M/s SPCPL was discussed.
So far, NSSDCL had paid Rs180 crore for the works it completed. About defect liability period, he further claimed that SPCPL has agreed to maintain the works it completed for a 3-year period.
Land pooling has become a major hurdle for NSSCDCL. Gotmare, however, pointed out the PAPs are not ready to spare their land for the smart city project. They are continuously demanding land against their property, while smart city project does not have this concept. Even after passage of so many years, NSSCDCL has miserably failed to procure entire land, and hence the smart city project has hit a roadblock, sources said.