NONGPOH: Construction work for the prestigious Jorabat-Umiam Expressway in Ri Bhoi District has come to a standstill since the past two days due to a legal wrangle between the implementing agencies – M/s Ramky Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. and M/s NKC Pvt. Ltd.
According to highly- placed sources, Ramky Company lodged an FIR with the Byrnihat Police Outpost against NKC for delaying payment of Rs. 19 crore to the former for utilization of its machineries and equipment for the past eight months after Ramky abandoned the project and the same was taken over by NKC.
The NKC had reached an agreement with Ramky that it would use its machineries and equipment for carrying out the project and make necessary payments to Ramky. After a passage of 8 months, NKC was found lagging behind in its payment commitment to Ramky.
On the basis of the FIR lodged by Ramky officials, Byrnihat police swung into action and arrested NKC general manager in charge of finance, Sandeep Agarwal, from the NKC office at Byrnihat. He was, however, released on bail.
It may be mentioned here that the construction of the much- hyped four-lane road was handed over to Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) who later leased the work to M/s Ramky Pvt. Ltd. which, further, sub leased the work to M/s Y.F.C. Group for the construction of the road from Umdihar to Lad Umroi. Ramky took upon itself the task of construction of the road from Jorabat to Umdihar.
However, M/s Ramky abruptly abandoned the project in April-May 2013 following which M/s NKC stepped in.
Though the reasons behind Ramky’s sudden decision to abandon the project was unclear, it was widely speculated that a spate of accidents on the stretch of the project undertaken by Ramky Company might have led to the decision. Among the incidents reported was a landslide at 19 Mer due to earth cutting by the company resulting in the death of three persons in 2012, drowning of a school boy in Shangbangla due to inordinate dumping of soil by the company resulting in the formation of a pond and the death of one youth at Shangbangla, Ri Bhoi District due to excessive use of explosives.
The sudden stoppage of construction works for the past two days has created concern among local residents of Ri Bhoi who have been encountering undue hardship due to the delay in completion of the construction project.
Incidentally, questions have been raised over why the arrest of the NKC official did not reflect in the daily crime update on the Meghalaya Police website.