Monitoring panel gets HC notice

Vijay Arora

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, July 1

The Himachal High Court today issued a show-cause notice to the three members of a committee monitoring the construction of the 80-km Theog-Kotkhai-Jubbal-Rohru road. The panel members — comprising the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (PW) and Engineer-in-Chief (PWD) — have been asked as to why they should not be tried under the Contempt of Courts Act for filing affidavits contrary to the actual situation on ground.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, has also sought explanation from the Director of the Himachal Pradesh Road Infrastructure Development Corporation for not filing the affidavit as per the court order.

The court also directed C&C Construction Company’s Managing Director SK Sethi and the company’s Director to remain present in the court on July 6.

It asked the contractor to execute an undertaking in terms of the affidavit already filed by it to the effect that the construction company would not seek any addition/alteration of the terms of the contract or resort to arbitration to lay a claim for additional amount. It further directed the company to undertake that it will achieve the milestones in terms of the affidavit filed by it at its own risk and responsibility.

The court passed the orders after receiving a plea on the delay in the construction of the road. It has been alleged that local residents were facing heavy loss as they were not being able to carry their crop produce to markets in time due to poor condition of the road.

Earlier, the state government had awarded the project to a Chinese company, Longijian Roads and Bridge Limited, which did not complete even 10% of the work in around five years. The firm later abandoned the work after which the state government cancelled the tender.

Keeping in view the public inconvenience and transportation problems, the state government, in 2012, bifurcated the tenders into two parts for early completion of the work.