As many has 5,247 contractors have been registered online under the integrated registration system established at the headquarters of the Public Works Department (PWD) here. The integrated online registration system was commenced 16 months back which carries out registration of the contractors involved with works of Water Resources, Public Health Engineering, Rural Engineering departments as well as other agencies involved in construction work.
The system has registration of a total of 370 ‘A’ category contractors, 415 ‘B’ category, 550 ‘C’ category and 3,912 ‘D’ category contractors so far. Moreover, it may be recalled that PWD Minister Rajesh Munat has devised a novel method of keeping tabs on various development works underway in his Department across Chhattisgarh.
The Minister stated that he will now continuously monitor the development work undertaken by his Department using ‘WhatsApp’. Munat directed the officers to provide inspection reports and photographs of the construction sites directly to him through the application.
In a review meeting with the Chief Engineer and Executive Engineers held at New Circuit House in Raipur early this year, the Minister had directed the officers to provide him the monthly inspection report along with photographs through WhatsApp.
He directed the officers to ensure completion all the approved works in Bastar and Surguja divisions in given time-frame on priority basis. Munat said that there should be no delay in inviting tenders after getting administrative sanctions. He directed that the pending issues should be disposed in a phased manner within a month.
For sanctioned works pending due to unavailability of site, Munat said that the officers should coordinate with the administration to start the works immediately. The construction of hostel building, school building, health center building in remote forest areas of Bastar and Surguja should be completed in decided time as per the agreement. The works which have not been completed in given time period should be taken on priority, he said.
Munat said that to encourage new construction agencies to complete the work in given time frame, the Government has decided that such agencies need only registration for works upto Rs5 crore. Any agency registered under A-5 can compete in tenders for works up to Rs5 crore. There is no need pre-qualification or financial bid, he said.
The Minister also directed to install notice boards with details of work at the construction sites. The notice boards should also have details and telephone number of the construction agency and supervising officer.
last year, with a view to reducing the paperwork for tender process for the PWD contractors, the State Government decided to issue certificates to the contractors which will be renewed in November month every year.
The contractors now upload the required papers on e-registration website and submit the notary certified copies of the documents with the office of Chief Engineer by December 12 to get the certificate, officials said.
The officials said that the contractors submit Income Tax balance sheet of past five years, profit and loss account and the audit report, certificate issued by a Chartered Accountant regarding turnover of past five years and no dues from Commercial Tax department. They submit these documents once and they are issued a certificate by the Chief Engineer office.
The contractor uploads the certificate while applying for tenders in future. The certificate has to be renewed every year in November, they said. The contractors will have to upload the documents at the e-registration website and submit the notary certified copies with the office of the Chief Engineer.
To upload the documents, the contractor login on the e-registration website by entering the user ID and the password issued to them by the department through SMS, officials said.
Munat while holding a meeting with officials had stated that penalty will be imposed on construction agencies if they fail to complete the work as per quality norms within prescribed time period. The Minister stated that the construction agencies accept the construction work on the conditions of the tender then they should complete the work within the given time period.
He had warned the departmental officers that no relaxation in the terms and conditions should be given in construction works after issuing tender. If such relaxations are done, recovery will be done from the concerned officer.
He had further directed that spot inspection should be done before issuing the tender. In the spot inspection the team should check if there is any electricity line, tree, rehabilitation of people or any other physical obstruction in the work.
These problems should be sorted in advance so that construction work goes without obstruction. He stated that tender process for construction should be started only after getting possession of the land. For preparation of revised estimate in case of delay due to different reasons, Munat said this is a wrong practice and asked the officers and contractors to be cautious.
Moreover, the State Government has started taking steps to settle the forest land disputes under the Forest Protection Act 1980 as early as possible for accelerating the process of laying of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Project).
A time-bound action plan has been chalked out for various departments to settle the issues relating to forest land expeditiously, officials stated. Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand chaired a review meeting at the Mantralaya for taking stock on the status of the rural road projects underway in the State. Dhand in a circular issued directed that all the road works should be completed in a time-bound manner.
The Chief Secretary said that the land area should be inspected by the Forest Department officer on the next day itself. The District Collector should be informed if there is any delay. The concerned Collector should settle the issue in within 10 days. The time-frame has been fixed as per the hectares of forest land.
The officers of Panchayat and Rural Development Department in a State-level Standing Committee of Panchayat and Rural Development Department chaired by the Chief Secretary in December last year had taken stock of the status of roads and structures being constructed under PMGSY.
It was informed in the meeting that 5124 permanent roads have been constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme. The total length of these roads is 22750 km. These include roads constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme besides roads constructed in different phases of Rural Road Connectivity Programme of the Asian Development Bank.
The construction of these roads has facilitated people of 7610 rural settlements for commuting in these all weather roads, it was informed. In the meeting it was also informed that construction of 337 roads was completed at a cost of Rs715 crore under PMGSY in the financial year 2013-14. The length of these roads is 1292 km and their construction has linked 969 settlements.
As many as 37 roads have been sanctioned under the advance technology of PMGSY. Among these, construction of four roads has been completed while construction of 10 roads is under progress. The process of tender agreement is completed for five roads while tenders for 18 roads are under process.
In the meeting, the officers informed that proposals for construction of 294 roads worth Rs1023.51 crore and construction of 103 bridges worth Rs1318 crore was been sent to the Central Government for financial year 2014-15.
Meanwhile, the State Government, according to reports last year was unable to connect the rural villages in Naxal-infested districts with proper roads under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) even after best efforts as no contractors are now willing to work in the troubled zone.
The Government, according to reports, could not start construction over 200 sanctioned road projects under the PMGSY as no contractor came forward to take up the work following threat from the Maoists operating in the red terror zone in the State.
The districts such as Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Bastar are worst affected and no contractor is able operate in these districts without sanction from the outlaws and hence contractors are not willing to take up road construction work in these districts, it was learnt.
Even in some cases it is learnt that the contractors came forward and got the tender for road construction but withdrew following threat from the rebels leaving the State administration with little option other than to look for alternatives to get the work done.
The Government in a bid to generate interest among the contractors had also relaxed many norms for road construction but to no avail.
Each district in the red zone, is considering to set up a ‘Special Screening Committee’ under the chairmanship of district collector which will place contrition order directly to contractors who will be willing to take up the work.
Meanwhile Principal Secretary Rural Development Department M K Raut also shot off a letter to this effect to district collectors in the affected areas to review the current status and take a final decision on the new proposal. Under PMRGSY, over 4000 km rural roads have been built in other districts in the State where there is no Maoist influence.
It may be recalled that Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari had convened a meeting on developing roads in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on January 13 this year in Naya Raipur.
Gadkari had made the in the meeting announcement to carry out construction of roads and bridges in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on Mission Mode with Precast and other advance technologies with assistance from Military Engineering Services (MES) and DRDO. He had stated that local contractors would also be engaged for construction of roads and other development works in violence-hit pockets.
The Union had reviewed the progress of road infrastructure works in insurgency-hit eight states and heaped praise on security forces and construction agencies for executing the key road projects in red zones despite all odds.
Gadkari had told the delegates at the review meet that around 75 per cent of the Naxal problem could be solved if a network of road and bridges is developed in insurgency-hit areas.