Kerala: Contractor made to pay for faulty work

PALAKKAD: A major contractor with state public works department (PWD) will take up a Rs 2-crore recovery work on the state highway from Pattambi to Pulamanthole at his own expense after the PWD minister the MLA concerned took a stand that he would be blacklisted for the poor quality of  the 13-kilometre stretch he had laid starting  from 2013 at a cost of  Rs 9.6 crore. The contractor had the option to move the court pleading that the guarantee period had ended in 2016 but PWD minister G. Sudhakaran and Pattambi MLA Muhammed Muhsin stood their ground, forcing the contractor to budge. Mr Muhsin told DC that the portions laid by the contractor at the beginning of the work started coming apart as the work reached its final stages. This was due to the sub-standard quality of the work, he alleged.

“A vigilance case was registered during the previous UDF regime based on a complaint by an RTI activist from Pattambi,” he said. “The PWD issued notices to the contractor repeatedly to conduct the recovery work but did not respond positively. I was even ready to make way for an additional fund of Rs 2 crore from the PWD for the public to use the road which is full of potholes. But it was found that the completion certificate of the road was yet to  reach the top officials  of PWD to allot the additional funds.”

The contractor was given two options at a meeting held at the chamber of PWD minister on October 10:  either to do a recovery work spending Rs 2 crore by doing bitumen macadam and bitumen concrete (BM & BC) or get blacklisted. “The minister even said that the pension of the PWD engineers concerned would be withheld,” Mr  Muhsin said. “And the pressure seems to have worked.” It is learnt the recovery works will start on Tuesday once the time given for calibration of the contractor’s plant was over.