Handing over of land for Nongstoin-Mawthabah two lane project
SHILLONG: The KHADC has decided to wait for response from the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) before taking a call to hand over the land for the Mawthabah-Wahkaji road to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
As per the letter received from the Ministry, the State Government had written a letter to the Council requesting it to hand over the stretch of land from Wahkaji to Mawthabah for the proposed two lane road project from Nongstoin to Mawthabah which has already been sanctioned by the Ministry.
The State Government had written to the Council in view of the fact that there is already a road project funded by UCIL to be constructed from Wahkaji to Mawthabah which was to be implemented by the KHADC.
Earlier, the Ministry had sanctioned the two-laning of the 68 km Nongstoin-Domiasiat-Mawthabah road at a cost of Rs 470 crore.
KHADC CEM Adelbert Nongrum had led a delegation of the Executive Members of the Council on Monday to inspect the progress of the Wahkaji-Mawthabah road.
“We have decided to wait for the response from the UCIL since the project is yet to be completed. If the UCIL does not have any issue in allowing the Ministry to complete the road project then we have no problem in handing over the land,” the Executive Member in charge Mining and Geology Department, Donkupar Sumer told newsmen here on Tuesday.
Sumer said they have already written to the UCIL and are awaiting a response from them.
Informing about the status of the project, Sumer said that out of 20 km, around 13.5 km of the road is yet to be black topped.
“We are not able to complete the black topping of the remaining portion of the road since the UCIL is yet to release the full amount allocated for the project,” the KHADC Executive Member in charge Mining said.
Out of the total Rs 38 crore earmarked for the project, Sumer informed that the UCIL has so far paid Rs 32 crore but has stopped releasing funds for the project since May last.
He also informed that the original estimate of the Wahkaji-Mawthabah road was Rs 19.88 crore but the finding of the Technical Audit said that the road cannot be completed within the estimated amount since there were a lot of pending works to be executed even after an amount of Rs 18.57 crore was released.
“Accordingly, the UCIL had directed the Engineer to prepare fresh estimates which come to approximately Rs 20.31 crore to complete the road project, with no further escalation to be entertained by the UCIL. Therefore, the total estimates for the road project comes to Rs 38.88 crore,” Sumer informed.
When asked if there are pending dues to be paid to the contractors, Sumer said that the Council has already cleared all bills.
“The remaining funds are meant specifically for black topping of the 13.5 km stretch,” Sumer added.
He, however, denied that there was any misappropriation of funds in the implementation of the road project.
“There is no reason to doubt the seriousness about implementation of this road project. The UCIL is releasing the funds for the project after assessment of the work and inspection of the project sites,” Sumer said.
Earlier, the general secretary of Kylleng-Pyndeng Sohiong (Contd on P-10)
KHADC awaiting…
(Contd from P-3) Uranium Land Owners’ Association, Heasdiengland Lyngdoh Sangriang had alleged that the undue delay may be due to irregularities since the contractors had not completed the works on time.
“A committee consisting of AMD Senior Engineer (Civil), Surveyor AMD, Chief Superintendent (Civil), Additional Superintendent (Geo), DGM (UCIL) and KHADC Project Engineer had visited the ongoing construction work of Wahkaji-Mawthabah road (20 km length) on April 30 and May 1, 2014. The Committee has gone through the details about the work done till date,” Sumer said.