For most inexplicable reasons, the East Coast Constructions and Industries (ECCI) whose contract was terminated by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation( KMC) for non performance has been showered with favours by the Odisha Water Supply & Sewerage Board (OWSSB) in spite of a more dismal track record of project execution here.
The Company was one of the contractors for the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP) which was awarded the contract in November 2006. The website of the KEIP shows that the contract was terminated in July 2009 for reasons of abnormal delay.
A juxtaposition of that situation with the one in Odisha shows how the company is being treated with kid gloves here and how serious are the authorities for timely completion of the projects under them. ECCI started the work on the project in Bhubaneswar in 2009.
More than four years later the work has not yet reached the halfway mark. But, according to sources, no penalty has been imposed nor is any such thing being contemplated. Rather the company has been already given another time extension. The Member Secretary of the Board at that time did not allow any cost escalation.
But a move has been made after his departure from the scene to also grant cost escalation. A high level committee of the Secretaries of the State Government is due to take up the issue for consideration on July 24. No attempt at all is being made to penalize the company for so much of delay in executing the work.
Sources in the Sewerage Board are not at all convinced about the escalation demand. They allege that the company has not used the product of the Steel Authority of India ltd through the contract specified it. Cheaper steel of local manufacturers was used on the spacious plea that the SAIl steel was not available at that time. It also got the benefit of higher rate of transportation for enabling it to bring Sail steel from outside the State. But the escalation demand is being calculated on the basis of the cost of SAIl Steel.
A similar development has been alleged to have happened in the use of cement too where products of lesser known companies with doubtful quality was used in place of branded cements of reputed companies. In fact sources point out that while some of the delay in the execution of work could have been condoned because of some lapses from the side of the Sewerage Board the poor quality for work alone should make this a fit case for rescinding the contract.
Observers point out that the precarious financial capability of ECCI would make it impossible for the company to execute the contract.It has been reported that the company has to pay huge amounts to its suppliers and sub contractors. The amount that may accrue to it if the escalation demands are accepted would not even be enough to meet those obligations.
So the company is not likely to speed up the execution, as it claims, even if it is granted payment at escalated rate. It is apparent that having a satisfactory drainage system is going to elude the City for some more time if theOdisha Water Supply & Sewerage Board (OWSSB)does not change its soft approach to ECCI.
In view of the above the demand for cancellation of the contract to ECCI and giving it to a party capable of executing it in time is gaining momentum.