*Tenders cancelled 4 times for hiring Authority’s Engineer
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 28: In sheer violation of the guidelines of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), the J&K Roads and Buildings Department has been avoiding third-party monitoring of work on very important and longest (1640 Mts) bridge in Northern India over river Chenab near Pargwal and Khour in Akhnoor sector of Jammu district.
Official sources told the Excelsior that work on this vital bridge project worth Rs 119.67 crore was launched in September 2018. The R&B authorities allotted the work to the joint venture of M/s VKG & Associates and M/s MBZ, Chandigarh based construction companies. As per tender agreement, 30 months time has been given to the contractors by the J&K Government for the completion of the task. Moreover, maintenance for four years after commissioning, will be the responsibility of this joint venture for bridge.
Sources revealed that even during the allotment procedure and interactions with the concerned agencies and the contractors, the then Minister for R&B, Naeem Akhtar had directed for the third party monitoring, because of the importance of this longest and vital bridge in the State. Interestingly, during last one year, the R&B authorities (R&B Division No.3 Jammu) invited tenders four times, but every time the same were cancelled through corrigendum, citing some ‘technical reasons’ for it. As per guidelines, 3 % of the project cost is entitled for the Authority’s Engineer/Consultancy which is now being reportedly shared by the R&B itself.
Referring to one of the tenders, vide reference No. 2019 PWDJK-76950-I, it has been mentioned by the R&B Div No.3 for hiring of Consultancy Services for Authority’s Engineer for supervision of civil construction works for ‘ Construction of 1640 mt span double lane bridge with footpath on both sides including approaches on both side of approximately length 3.6 km over river Chenab at Sajwal (Pargwal-Indripattan) at Jourian in district Jammu. But the tender vide letter No. 1874-90 dated 23-5-2019 was cancelled due to the reasons best known to the people at the helm of affairs. This corrigendum of the R&B department just mentioned, “ Due to technical reasons the e-tender invited for the above mentioned work is hereby withdrawn”.
The agencies all over India were invited to submit tender documents and CDRs several times but every time through corrigendum the tenders were withdrawn. Last time, the tender was withdrawn on 23-9-2019 through yet another corrigendum. Over one year has passed but the work is undergoing on the bridge in the absence of Authority’s Engineer comprising of bridge engineer, highway engineer, material engineer etc, mandatory for any big project. Sources said even the Government went for the third party monitoring in case of important Keedian Gandyal bridge over Ravi and several other important bridges in the State in the recent past.
Chief Engineer, R&B Jammu, Nassir Goni when contacted and asked why third party monitoring has been over looked by the R&B/ Government for this vital and longest bridge over river Chenab said, it is not necessary, R&B itself is performing monitoring job for this bridge. He said if the bridge’s cost is up to some limit, the agency can itself monitor the work. When asked why tenders were invited four times, if it was not required, Goni said that was conducted by the concerned Executive Engineer. That could have been avoided. On third party monitoring issue, R&B was capable to do this task, he added.
As already projected by the Excelsior the longest bridge in Northern India, considered to be very vital as per defence point of view, being constructed over river Chenab In Pargwal area of Akhnoor Sector under Central Road Fund (CRF), will be ready by mid of 2021 as the agency R&B is quite hopeful to meet the given deadline by the Government.
With the completion and commissioning of this 1640 mts concrete double- lane bridge, over 40 villages and nearly three dozens of hamlets of the Pargwal area which is exposed to frequent Pakistani firing from two sides and one side from river Chenab, will have direct connectivity to the Khour Sub Divisional headquarters. The people of this area were struggling for the last over three decades for the construction of this bridge.
Sources said there will be 40 piers of this double- lane 12 mts wider bridge, having 1.5 mt foot paths on both sides. The total height of the pier will be 38 ft while 26 ft will remain in the river bed. Each span will have 42 mts length. The flow of funds was a bit slow on the project for the last few months, which may result into slow pace of work on it, sources added.
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