MC floats tenders worth Rs 80 crore

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 17

The cash-starved Municipal Corporation may have failed to release the salary of employees, but despite its coffers being empty, it has floated around 160 tenders of development projects as well as maintenance works in just one week and the estimated cost of these projects is said to be over Rs80 crore.

According to information, these tenders were published during the period between June 11 and June 16. Mostly projects are related to the construction or carpeting of roads and installation of interlocking tiles in different parts of the city, besides tenders for installation of tube-wells, maintenance of street lights, electrical works and others. Some repair works at flats under BSUP at Giaspura, Dhandari and Mundian are also included in the list of tenders.

The MC has floated tenders for laying RMC roads in various streets and links on Daba Road from Gill Road to Labour Chowk, Mohalla Shimlapuri and in a few streets of Mohalla Dashmesh Nagar at an estimated cost of Rs89.51 lakh. It has to install interlocking tiles in the streets of Dugri Phase 2 (behind telephone exchange) at an estimated cost of around Rs89.05 lakh.

The civic body invited bids for laying semi-dense bituminous concrete (SDBC) at Bharat Nagar Chowk road to Session Chowk at an estimated cost of around Rs80 lakh. It also floated tenders for street works in Mall Enclave, road work from dispensary to Jaspal Bangar and link roads of Lohara village and many other roads and internal street projects.

Tenders have also been floated for the maintenance of street light points in different wards under the MC. Technical bids for many tenders are likely to be opened next week.

Sources said Congress leaders want to see development works at the earliest as the Lok Sabha elections would be held next year. The New MC House was formed in March. However, no meeting has been held in the past two months. Not only this, no ‘salary’ has been paid to councillors, a councillor said.

Many councillors from the Opposition claim they were unaware about any new tendering process. “I have no information about these tenders,” said Harwinder Singh, Lok Insaaf Party councillor from Ward No. 36.

An official requesting anonymity said: “Many employees have not got the last month’s salary. Besides, 25 per cent employees have not even got April’s salary. The salaries were only released when we staged protests in the recent past.”

Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu said tenders have been floated for various development works and maintenance works. “The councillors have been demanding to carry out development works in their respective areas. These works are required to be done. Our efforts are on to improve MC’s financial condition. Once we arrange the funds, the payments would be released to the contractors,” he said.

GLADA to pay for repair of stolen wires worth Rs75 lakh

Electricity wires worth lakhs of rupees have been stolen from various flats under Basic Services for Urban Poor Programme at Mundian Kalan, Dhandari and Giaspura. Questions are being raised as to how wires were stolen before the allotment of flats at Mundian Kalan and Dhandari.

When dwellers from the encroached land in the vicinity of Jagraon Bridge were shifted to Mundian flats, they had found that the electricity wires were missing in the allotted flats. Now, the estimated cost for electrical fitting repair at Mundian flats is Rs32.56 lakh.

Apart from this, the tender value for the repair of electrical fitting for Giaspura flats is Rs19.90 lakh and Rs22.65 lakh for Dhandari flats. The tenders for provision of HT and LT power lines at BSUP flats Mundian Kalan and Dhandari have been floated.

MC’s Executive Engineer Balwinder Singh said the tenders have been floated for electrical fitting repair. The wires were stolen from these flats, he said. Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu said GLADA would pay for the repair of electrical fitting at the flats.