The Mid-Western regional office of the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) had awarded the Rs 40.56 million-contract to the joint venture of Nepal Pragati, Pradip, DC and Suppliers and Galva JV contractors on July 13, 2008. [break]As per their agreement with the DUDBC, the contractors should have completed the building construction by end of June 2010.
Worse, the contractors, who have already received Rs 20 million in advance from the DUDBC, stopped the construction work recently.
Binod Khetan, Medical Superintendents of the zonal hospital, says he is tired of complaining about the delay in the building construction work. “I have informed all agencies involved in the construction work about the delay,” said Khetan. “But, no one has yet taken any steps.”
Khetan said that the zonal hospital is facing difficulties in providing emergency service due to the delay in the construction work.
Similarly, the construction of two buildings of Mahendra Multiple Campus Nepalgunj, the contract for which was awarded to Badimalika Construction Company six years ago, is also in limbo. The two buildings, which altogether consist of 22 rooms, should have been completed within one year of the contract. But, the works remain far from being completed.
The campus had applied for Masters´ degree course after the Indian embassy pledged Rs 2.96 million for the building construction. “We obtained permission to run the degree course,” said Rajitram Pathak, assistant professor at the campus. “But, our new building is not yet ready.”
In recent years, many construction projects in Banke district are lying incomplete as the contractors have either delayed or abandon the projects halfway. As the authorities fail to take action against the contractors, the trend of abandoning the projects midway is rising.
Shyam Kaji Piya, engineer at Nepalgunj municipality, says that the contractors often quote minimum amounts while submitting their proposals to win the contracts. “Later, they can´t complete the projects as market prices rise,” said Piya.
According to Piyar, in the last fiscal year, as many as nine development projects remained incomplete as the contractors abandoned them midway. “In the past, only one or two projects would be incomplete,” said Piya. “In the last fiscal year, the number of incomplete projects surpassed all previous records.”
Related story
Gorkha contractors delay projects completion and seek deadline...
