Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

City roads: impasse continues

Special Correspondent

Deadline set by TRDCL to renew the contract expires

Thiruvananthapuram: The deadlock in the negotiations to resume the stalled City Roads Improvement Project continues, even as the deadline set by Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd. (TRDCL), the private consortium executing the project, drew to a close on Saturday.

The company had issued notice to the Government threatening to pull out of the project if the contract was not renewed by the end of March.

The Government feels that the compensation of Rs.120 crore demanded by the company is unjustifiable. The first round of negotiations with the consortium earlier this month had failed to come to a settlement.

TRDCL claims that the compensation amount was fixed to cover the cost of underutilised machinery for the past two years and the deployment costs for the next two years if the contract is renewed. "It was for no fault of ours that the project ground to a halt. Despite repeated requests, the Government failed to deliver the land in time. Our machinery has been idling for over two years now. We cannot absorb losses beyond a certain limit," a company official said.

Of the 42 km of roads identified for the project, only 14.66 km were handed over to TRDCL by the end of the two-year schedule that ended in November 2006. Earlier this month, Public Works Minister T.U. Kuruvilla had announced that the Government had initiated a move to renew the agreement with TRDCL. A committee headed by the Chief Secretary was set up to examine the legal and financial implications of the compensation claim.

The Minister claimed that a detailed schedule had been worked out to deliver all the land before June 30. Since then, the Revenue Department has demolished the shops on both sides of MG Road from Statue to Overbridge to acquire the land required for widening.

TRDCL sources said a final decision on withdrawing from the project would be taken by the company headquarters in Mumbai. The consortium is a joint venture between Consolidated Toll Network Ltd. (CTNL) and the engineering firm Punj Lloyd.

Public Works Department Principal Secretary Mathew C. Kunnumkal said the door was still open for negotiations. "The Government has made it clear that the amount demanded by TRDCL is not acceptable. We have given our response to the proposal submitted by the consortium. Even though it may take further negotiations, we are hopeful of thrashing out a mutually acceptable decision on the issue," he said.

Asked what would happen if TRDCL decided to pull out, he said the company could not take a unilateral decision. He, however, added that the Government was prepared to explore other options.

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