Urban News

The work was the construction of a pipeline to bring Narmada water to the town. On February 26, Chief Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the same. But the civic body has shot back, saying that inferior quality material was used in the construction.

Advocate Rakesh Rajput representing Godhra-based contractor, Pankaj Amin, has filed a civil suit against Godhra Municipality president, Murli Moolchandani, for not paying Rs 5.4 crore for the works completed about one and a half years ago. “They have only cleared certain portions of the money. We had written to them several times but nothing happened so we were bound to take legal action,” said Amin.

Rajput said the case has been filed in the court of Godhra District Judge as a special civil law suit (case no: 16/2010).

Meanwhile, Moolchandani has accused Amin of doing substandard work on the pipelines, including the sumps and the joints. “A third party evaluation shows that most of the joints have leakages right from Signal Faliya near Godhra railway station to Lalbaug. All the sumps have faulty designs and cement has been poorly used. Should we pay him for the substandard work that he has done?” he said.

He added that the Godhra Municipality is planning to file a case against the contractor.

In an unrelated development, the Godhra civic body has received a grant of Rs 25 lakh from Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel to rejuvenate five of the lakes that surround the city. “Digging in five of the lakes has begun for the first time. We hope to meet the water demands,” Moolchandani said.