The Times of India              20.12.2013 

SMKMC to impose fine on contractor for project delay

Kolhapur: The Sangli Miraj Kupwad Municipal Corporation (SMKMC) has decided to impose a fine of Rs 2,000 a day on the contractor company that was awarded the contract of underground drainage pipeline in the city.

The contractor company has already been blacklisted by the Solapur Municipal Corporation for not maintaining the quality of the work. The commissioner of the Solapur Municipal Corporation has scrapped the contract order worth Rs 217 crore with the contractor.

The corporators in the SMKMC had expressed unhappiness with the administration for issuing contract to the blacklisted company for the underground drainage pipeline. The construction of two tanks at Hirabaug and Mal-Bungalow areas is also still under construction when it was supposed to be over by November, an SMKMC official said.

The mayor of the city, Ashwini Khandagale, had proposed a detailed discussion over the issue, as the contractor company is charged with fine, one month after completion of its stipulated period of work.

The corporators are, however, divided over whether to scrap the project or not. If the project is scrapped, the allocated funds might have to be returned to the state government-fears a section of them.

The corporation is currently ruled by the Congress, that has a complete majority in the house. A senior corporator said, "The contractor company was given three years to complete the work. More than three years have passed, but the project is still incomplete. The contractor has cited excuses like no supply of sand for completion of infrastructure needed for the underground drainage pipelines. These reasons are baseless because sand mining was going in Sangli district during the period."

The contractor company claims to have completed 70% of the work, but there is assessment of its quality of the work, the corporator said.

City Congress chief and former state minister Madan Patil has decided to call a meeting of all corporators to take a final decision on the issue.