Monday, Jan 26, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
By Sujay Mehdudia
NEW DELHI, JAN. 25. The old adage of "once bitten twice shy'' does not seem to apply to the Delhi Government. Despite having been bitten on a number of occasions and having a bad experience with the Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation (UPSBC) in execution of infrastructure projects, the Delhi Government, for some strange reason, has been awarding contracts to this organisation that is faced with a financial crisis and is battling to stay afloat. Except for having completed the ramps of the Raja Garden flyover project within the set time frame, the UPSBC has overran time schedules, incurred heavy over costs and worked in a highly unprofessional manner in executing works for the Delhi Government. The professional organisation that had built all bridges and flyovers in Delhi during the run up to the Asian Games, today is struggling to maintain its image and standing in view of financial mismanagement and corruption in various spheres. However, the Delhi Government has not learnt a lesson from the past mistakes and the Public Works Department (PWD) seems to be obsessed with UPSBC and awarding contract after contract to it despite its poor track record. It has raised eyebrows in Government circles and has led to speculation about corruption and some higher ups in the Government playing a major role in siding with this inefficient organisation. The latest instance of the Delhi Government bowing to the unjust and blackmailing tactics of UPSBC is giving it leverage in the Dhaula Kuan flyover project that has been delayed endlessly for some strange reason. The PWD has gone out of the way to ensure that UPSBC does not suffer irrespective of the fact that taxpayer's money is floundered. In fact, there was a talk in the Delhi Government of blacklisting UPSBC at one point of time but intervention from the Constitutional head prevented any such thing from taking place. For instance, the Raja Garden flyover was supposed to be completed within 30 months of it being commissioned but UPSBC took 48 months to complete the project. Similarly, in the Peeragarhi flyover project, the UPSBC was suppose to finish the flyover within 20 months but took 41 months for the same. The story is no different for the Tilak Nagar flyover project that was supposed to be completed within 24 months but it took UPSBC 53 months to complete it, prestigious AIIMS flyover project that was to be completed in 29 months but it took 41 months to complete the same. However, all these instances failed to move the Delhi Government and in fact many within the administration went out of the way to award projects to UPSBC. The past failures have failed to move the Government and it continued to repose faith in the inefficient organisation reasons for which could only be explained by the Government or the PWD Minister, A.K. Walia. In fact, some officials revealed that the Delhi Government had blacklisted UPSBC for delay in execution of the AIIMS flyover but for some strange reason the blacklisting was withdrawn without any valid explanation. It has not affected the Government the least if the infrastructure projects get delayed endlessly raising suspicions of some vested interests at work. It is learnt that in the Dhuala Kuan flyover pact, the Delhi Government even gave up its stand and allowed UPSBC go get away without constructing the subways originally planned. Now these subways would be constructed by some other agency for which separate tenders are expected to be floated. However, there is little or no explanation as to why such a thing was allowed.
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