Times of India: Nagpur: Sunday, June 10, 2018.
Cracks as
well as potholes have started developing on few newly concretized stretches of
outer ring road (ORR) even before the formal start of the road for regular
traffic, raising questions on quality of works.
A visit to
ORR stretch between Amravati road and Wardha road revealed cracks in large
numbers in a couple of locations on few concretized stretches. In other sites,
the cracks are wide and from one side of the road to the other. Small sized
potholes can also be seen at some locations. None of the concretized stretch is
opened for traffic as of now.
Confirming
the cracks, NHAI project director N L Yeotkar said private companies are bound
to replace all defective panels that too for 20 years. “Project is being
executed under the NHAI’s hybrid annuity model (HAM) in which the contractors
are supposed to take care of the projects for 20 years. Our site officials are
always on the project. We will monitor the cracks. Repairing will be done if
cracks do not widen beyond 1-2cm but if it is above 2cm in width, the entire
panel will be replaced. There are many such provisions in the contract to get
the faulty works rectified,” he said.
The project,
sanctioned by Union minister Nitin Gadkari, to complete ORR at the cost of
Rs1,170 crore has also got delayed to a great extent.
As per
information obtained by activist Suraj Lolge under RTI Act, the NHAI awarded
package-I of Rs531 crore to MEP Nagpur Ring Road 1 Private Ltd and package-II
of Rs639 crore to MEP Sanjose Nagpur Ring Road 2 Private Ltd on March 31, 2016.
The two concessionaires then appointed MEP Infrastructure Developers Private
Ltd for executing the works. The deadline of two packages was 30 months.
Yeotkar said
40% works of package-I and 38% works in package-II have been completed.
With just
four months remaining for the deadline, the chances of completing remaining
works of the two packages seem to be a daunting task for the contractors. Delay
in works mean inconvenience for the traffic and chances of escalation in the
project cost also.
Under
package-I, the company is nearing completion of ORR widening between Wardha
road and Amravati road from existing two-lane to four-lane. The company has
also started concretization of stretches between Amravati road and Wardha road
and construction of ORR between Amravati road and Katol road.
Under
package-II, the private company is constructing bridges, railway over bridges
and construction of road. The concretization works are yet to begin.
The state
public works department’s (PWD) Inner Road Cement Concrete Project of Rs300
crore and the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) cement concrete road project
phase-I of Rs123 crore and phase-II of Rs324 crore have been also hit due to
cracks and inferior quality of works.
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