The Statesman               11.06.2013

KMC occupies 2 acres to construct flats

In order to occupy the land the private company had put up a boundary wall around the land and the KMC was unaware of this, a senior civic official said.  

The civic body demolished the boundary wall. Member, mayor-in-council Mr Swapan Samadder along with senior officials went to the spot  this morning to supervise the operation.  

The KMC will begin constructing flats on the land under the Basic Services for Urban Poor project. In 2009, the civic body had received the land from Kolkata Improvement Trust.

The KMC failed to find a contractor to construct the flats even after floating tender several times in the past four years. The project was initiated by the civic body in 2008 and the cost has escalated by 60 per cent owing to delay.  

The civic body has selected a bidder who will construct the flats, said Mr Samadder. Twenty five, five-storied buildings will come up on the plot. The construction of the flats will start next week and is likely to be completed within a year. The civic body has taken four years to start construction of the flats on Canal South Road due to its faulty planning, lack of foresight and lackadaisical attitude, a civic official said. This Rs 41-crore project was taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme.

The Indian Express                06.06.2013

Contractor gets the axe as PMC speeds up slum rehab project

In an attempt to complete the slum rehabilitation project under JNNURM before the deadline of March 2014, PMC Wednesday replaced the contractor who expressed inability to complete the work on time.

The Centre had earmarked Rs 522.4 crore for the project, but PMC could spend only Rs 165.17 crore.

This, the civic body said, was due to issues related to land acquisition.

As part of the project, the civic body had planned to construct 6,000 flats in Hadapsar, 2,576 in Warje, 1,792 in Kondhwa, 4,480 in Lohegaon and 1,680 in Kothrud.

The project also included construction of 10,265 ottas for rehabilitation of street vendors.

"The civic body had zeroed in on Patil Construction. However, the target of 2,576 houses cannot be achieved as the civic administration has not been able to acquire land for the project. There will be shortage of 750 apartments in Warje as per the set target," said Vishal Tambe, chairperson of the standing committee.

On the other hand, there is sufficient land available in Hadapsar, but the contractor, Arch Constructions, has expressed inability to complete the project on time.

"The civic administration wanted to construct houses within the time-frame as it would otherwise mean the PMC will have to return the funds to government.

Hence, it has been decided to split the work allotted to Arch Constructions and allot it to Patil Construction as the contractor," he said.

The project has taken a hit due to the failure of the civic administration to acquire Patel land as the project could at Kondhwa, Lohegaon and Kothrud did not kick-start.

"We have time to spend the money till March 2014. Efforts will be made to complete the project on time," Tambe said, adding, the civic administration has been asked to table a report on execution of BSUP project along with the information of beneficiaries.

The standing committee has also asked the civic administration to prepare a detailed audit report of the implementation of all the projects being implemented by PMC under JNNURM. PMC had submitted a detailed report for seeking funds from the Centre.