Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 26: The prestigious Jammu International Convention Centre (JICC), construction of which was started over 15 years back has failed to meet yet another deadline of its completion by December 2013 and this much talked about project will now be completed by March next year.
According to reliable sources, the Project will not meet the deadline of December 2013 as was announced by the authorities earlier due to certain shortcomings and they have demanded more time up to March 2014 from Government for its completion.
Sources said the Government has taken serious exception to delay in the construction of the Project which should have been completed over a decade back and started functioning since the Government had given directives to authorities of Hospitality and Protocol to speed up the work on the project and complete it as early as possible in view of the brewing resentment among the people over the delay of the Project.
Started way back in 1998 at an estimated cost of Rs 12.00 crore, the Jammu International Convention Centre was to be constructed on the pattern of Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) Srinagar. However it suffered an initial delay of two years after the security forces putting up at the site of the project did not agree to shift from there and dispute was sorted out after two years.
Sources said after resolving the dispute with security agency, the authorities started the work on the Convention Centre but it was again abandoned for years together due to paucity of funds and after a dispute surfaced between the contractors and the Department. The former sought the intervention of court to settle the dispute. The contractor doing the electrification work abandoned the same and later the Department terminated its contract and allotted work to SICOP, sources added.
In this entire process not only 10 long years were lost but the State exchequer was put to a heavy loss as the prices have escalated to a great extent since then. The cost of the Project also doubled as it escalated from Rs 12 crore to Rs 24.20 crore, sources said, adding later more time was lost in calling fresh tenders for electricity works taking the delay period to long 15 years.
Sources said the 15 year -long delay in the construction of the project has led to a lot of public resentment and people accused the Government of deliberately delaying the construction. When the SKICC was constructed in Kashmir valley in a stipulated time why the construction of JICC was delayed constantly for such a long time is a million dollar question”? asked some political and social activists from the region.
This showed that there was no shift in the discriminatory approach of the Government towards the Jammu region, they said adding that Finance Ministry was the major hurdle in timely construction of the JICC.
Taking the cognizance of the people’s resentment, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah during the recent review meting of the Project himself issued directives to authorities for speedy completion of the JICC but still the authorities are not in a position to complete the work by December and have sought three months more time in its completion.
Admitting that there has been a constant delay in the construction of the Project, Director General Hospitality and Protocol, S S Jamwal told Excelsior that the work on the project was abandoned for 10 long years following a dispute with the electricity contractor.
He said that after the dispute was settled and work allotted to SICOP, it took some time in renovating the abandoned building. He said almost entire work is complete now but it needs some time in giving the finishing touch and fitting interior decorations, terracing of lawns and parking place and painting etc.
Mr Jamwal said that directions have been given to all concerned agencies to handover the work by March next year so that the project is inaugurated by that time.
Sources said earlier work was started on the project in May 2012 with the intervention of the Chief Minister, as various delegations of people including the Legislators brought the issue in his notice and demanded speedy completion of the Project. At that time the dead line was given of completing the Project by 2013 December, sources added.
The Project is being constructed by Hospitality and Protocol Department through private agency and the Civil work has been allotted to MS Amarjit Charanjit Lal while the electricity work was allotted to SICOP.
It may be recalled that the SKICC, Srinagar, which was constructed during the tenure of then Chief Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1977 has alone hosted 124 conferences in 2009-2010 and 108 conferences in 2010-2011. But the Jammu ICC is yet to see the light of the day.
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