The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Southern Railway awarded seven contracts to Maytas”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Southern Railway awarded seven contracts to Maytas”

S.Vydhianathan

CHENNAI: Southern Railway has given contracts worth Rs.250 crore to Maytas Infra, belonging to the family of Ramalinga Raju, promoters of Satyam, and execution of these works are likely to be delayed.

In all, Southern Railway awarded seven contracts to Maytas, four in the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) and three for the Chengalpet - Villupuram doubling work. While MRTS contracts were finalised in January and April last year, the doubling contract was cleared last December.

Five contracts are being executed as a joint venture by Maytas along with C.T. Ramanathan Company and the remaining by Maytas Infra independently. After the Satyam scandal surfaced, work on MRTS between Velacheri and St.Thomas Mount has slowed down to a certain extent.

MRTS works

Southern Railway General Manger Rakesh Chopra told The Hindu here on Tuesday that in the MRTS, Maytas was given contracts for the sub-structure work on three stretches between Velachery and St.Thomas Mount. The work involved erecting pile foundation and construction of pier.

He said on one stretch 99 per cent of the pile work and 69 per cent pile capping work had been completed. In the other, 76 per cent of the pile work and 34 per cent capping work were over.

Construction of pier had started in places where capping work had been completed.

Maytas has also been entrusted with the construction of a new MRTS station, Mundahakanni Amman Temple, and improvement works in MRTS stations.

Doubling work

Regarding the Chengalpet – Villupuram doubling work, the General Manger said physical work was yet to start. The tender process had started six months before the contract was awarded.

Contractors are normally given two to three months time for mobilisation of materials and funds before beginning the work. If the mobilisation work is not satisfactory, then the administration can think of discharging the contractor, he said.

Southern Railway received Rs.4.2 crore as cash and fixed deposits and a bank guarantee of Rs.7 crore for the MRTS works and Rs.62 lakh as earnest money deposit for the doubling work. The administration was monitoring the progress of all the works. If there was undue delay in execution, it would go for alternative arrangements. In all contracts, there was a clause to penalise the contractor if there was delay in completing the work.

The General Manager said there was transparency in finalising the tenders. As Maytas satisfied all required norms set by Southern Railway, contracts were given to it.

According to a construction department official, if the substructure work in MRTS was delayed it would have a cascading effect affecting the super structure work, which had been awarded to another major contractor.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu