Road Construction Company Facing Stiff Fine
Patna: June 24, 2007
The state government on Sunday threatened to launch a performance review of the Kolkata-based Tantia Construction Limited if it did not finish the repair works of Patna roads by June 30th while hinting a substantial monetary fine that could be levied against the company if it failed to deliver as agreed upon.
Road Construction commissioner R. K. Singh, while talking to media on Sunday, said the government was not happy with the way things were going as far as repair works of 11 roads in Patna were concerned.
"Those days are gone when the private companies used to pull all sorts of tricks just to get the state contract. If they don't deliver as promised, fines could be imposed on them," Singh said adding that because of inordinate delay on the parts of Tantia Construction, it is already facing a fine of nearly Rs. 2 crore.
"It is not that we intentionally go after construction companies and fine them arbitrarily. In fact, we had even promised to reward the company if it could finish the ongoing project before the stipulated timeframe but it is now evident that the company would not be able to keep its promise and maybe that is why now it is using threats of extortion as an excuse to avoid the fine," Singh said.
Meanwhile, Tantia project manager P. Bannerjee denied of any wrongdoing saying if only it had a little more cooperation from various government departments, and had it not been for the early arrival of monsoon in Bihar, the company would have finished the project on schedule.
"We are confident of finishing the project by July 15. Our work was affected by the early arrival of monsoon and less than satisfactory cooperation from various government departments also contributed to the delay," Bannerjee said.
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