BMC yet to collect fines from road contractors

Contractors are given the responsibility of filling potholes on roads that fall under the Defect Liability Period (DLP). The civic roads department is entrusted with the responsibility of filling potholes on all other roads.

Contractors and road engineers were fined Rs 1,000 per day for failing to respond to complaints within a period of 48 hours. A circular issued in August 2012 by municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte stated that a double penalty would be levied on contractors for DLP roads.

While road engineers were fined roughly Rs 1.25 crore,contractors were fined Rs 1.8 crore. Civic officials from the roads department claimed the fine for contractors would be deducted from their payment,the administration was unclear on the fine levied on its engineers. In November 2012,Gupta reduced the fine amount to Rs 8.34 lakh. Recently,the civic body waived the penalty on its engineers.

“We want to encourage them to do better work. It is unlikely that we will fine them this year,too,” said Gupta.

New tenders for road construction worth Rs 1400 crore for 2012-2013 have been again handed to the group of infrastructure firms long associated with BMC. These include R P S Infraprojects,Mahavir Infraprojects,Relcon,Prakash Engineering,and K R Constructions.

alison.saldanha@expressindia.com