Most of the contractors in the city are not interested in working with Bangalore University (BU).
This has been proved many a time, and the Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda also experienced this ‘no response’ from the contractors for the tenders invited by the university recently.
Gowda decided to complete the construction work of all the incomplete buildings on Jnanabharathi campus and called a retender, but no contractors had come forward to apply.
Seeing this ‘no response’ policy from contractors, Gowda called a meeting of all the contractors who had worked with the university earlier. “I was surprised as we did not receive any bids from contractors when we called re-tendering for the building works that are were stopped. So, I had a meeting with all the contractors and convinced them to complete the work,” said Gowda.
According to the university officials, the contractors are not ready to work with it mainly because their bills are not cleared on time.
“Contractors are complaining that there old bills have not been cleared due to the rift between the then Vice-Chancellor and the engineering department.
Now, I promised them of clearing the bill on time and also made them to sign the undertaking of completing the pending works for old rates,” Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda said.
Meanwhile, the university also promised the contractors that 50 per cent of the bills would be released immediately and the rest will be cleared once the work is completed.
“I told the contractors that we will release the bills, if they are ready to complete the works for the old rates and they have agreed too,” Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda said.
“As per my experience, contractors are ready to work with us. We need to take them into confidence and also create confidence in them about the way we work. Regarding this had a meeting with engineering department also and insisted them not to trouble the contractors in anyway,” the Vice-Chancellor B Thimme Gowda told Express.