SHILLONG, April 21: Weeks after the Meghalaya government announced termination of the concessionaire agreement with the KPC Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, for construction of the proposed Shillong Medical College and Hospital, the firm asked the government to recall its decision and hand over the project site at the earliest to allow the firm to initiate the construction work.
The state government had written to the Kolkata-based Kali Pradip Group on March 15, announcing termination of the agreement and had recently made the decision public.
The government had claimed that the concessionaire was demanding amendments to the agreement compelling it to terminate the agreement with KPC Group.
Uttam Chakraborty, Director (Finance) KPC, however, claimed that the firm had been trying for long to fulfill its commitments in terms of the concessionaire agreement but they could not commence the project due to the inability of the Government of Meghalaya to hand over the identified project site.
“At the time of execution of the concessionaire agreement, the Meghalaya government had indicated that a plot of land measuring 29 acres in TB Hospital compound would be available for the project. The government agreed to hand over the site to us for the purpose of commencement of construction soon after execution of the agreement. But for some unknown reasons, the government failed to hand over the said project site despite repeated request from our side. Subsequently, the government communicated to us that a project site in New Shillong area has been identified for the project and requested us to visit the site,” Chakraborty said in his written response to the Commissioner and Secretary, Health department.
A copy of the letter is available with The Shillong Times.
The KPC official stated that the total area of the new site was less than the requisite area required for establishment of a medical college & hospital as per MCI guidelines and in order to manage the shortfall of the requisite area of land, they requested the government to allow KPC to use Ganesh Das Hospital, Shillong as their teaching hospital.
“The government neither handed over the aforesaid plot of land to us nor took necessary steps to allow us to use Ganesh Das Hospital, Shillong as our teaching hospital. Therefore, it cannot be considered an event of default on the part of the concessionaire as the Government of Meghalaya failed to hand over the project site to us,” the letter said.
Chakraborty further said that due to the inordinate delay in handing over the project site and due to the escalation of the cost of materials over such a long period of time, they requested the Government of Meghalaya to change and/or alter a few terms of the agreement. “We have not received any response from the government despite attending all meetings convened from time to time,” he added.
The letter also mentions that the KPC Group has incurred huge costs over the last 10 years including payment of fees to International Finance Corporation, Washington (consultant of the project appointed by the Government of Meghalaya), payment to land surveyor for measuring and demarcating the land initially thought for the project, hotel and travelling expenses for visiting Shillong on a number of occasion and a project security deposit of Rs 1 crore.
