Chandigarh: No payment to road contractors sans ‘satisfactory’ report from third party
The meeting was attended by engineering secretary Prerna Puri; municipal commissioner Amit Kumar; UT chief engineer CB Ojha; MC chief engineer Sanjay Arora and other senior officers of the engineering wings.
Mandip Singh Brar, who is holding charge till the newly-appointed chief secretary H Rajesh Prasad joins service, on Saturday directed the Chandigarh MC and UT administration officials that no payment shall be released to the contractors for road re-carpeting without a satisfactory quality report from a third-party inspection agency.
He also instructed that strict action will be taken against agencies or officers responsible for non-completion of works within the targeted timelines.
Brar held a meeting on Saturday to review the status of road repair works across the city. The meeting was attended by engineering secretary Prerna Puri; municipal commissioner Amit Kumar; UT chief engineer CB Ojha; MC chief engineer Sanjay Arora and other senior officers of the engineering wings.
During the meeting, the chief engineers briefed the chief secretary on the overall condition of the city roads, the extent of the road network, and stretches identified for urgent repairs following technical assessment. They also apprised him of the action plan for repair and resurfacing works scheduled in the coming weeks and months, the current status of tenders, and other related matters concerning execution and timelines.
Addressing the officials, the Chief Secretary directed the departments to prioritize stretches requiring urgent attention after due technical evaluation and emphasized that works must be executed in a time-bound and coordinated manner with strict adherence to quality and durability standards.
At present, the roads across the city are in bad shape. Due to fund crunch in MC, the road recarpeting work, usually carried out during March-April and October-November due to favourable weather conditions, has remained suspended since May 2024. Despite paperwork for major projects being completed months ago, the process of opening tenders was stalled due to the financial shortfall.
However, MC is now all set to commence the recarpeting of roads across the city around October 15, as the civic body has successfully received bids for all 11 tenders floated for the project. Around 250 kms of road will be recarpeted with ₹40 crore. These tenders cover V-4, V-5, V-6 roads and parking areas, ensuring comprehensive coverage across sectors and localities.
The MC, which is responsible for maintaining over 2,000km of roads — including V-3 sector-dividing roads, V-4 shopping streets, V-5 sector circulation roads, and V-6 access roads to houses — as well as parking lots, rehabilitation colonies, and village roads, is facing a severe fund crunch.
