BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Thursday reissued tenders for construction of 1,312 flats at Kanminike, off Mysuru Road. Reason: The previous contractor gave up on the project midway, leaving behind all the construction equipment at the spot.
The Rs 167-crore project of the BDA involves 608 1BHK, 384 2BHK and 320 3BHK flats. The contract was awarded to a joint venture company floated by Deepak Cables (India) Ltd and Lanco Infratech Ltd by 2013 end.
The deadline was fixed as December 2015. It was later extended by six months following a request from the contractor.
With only 20 per cent of the construction work completed after much delay and the contractors nowhere in sight, BDA finally terminated the contract. “Barring the huge time delay, BDA has not lost any money in the process. We have already paid them Rs 16 crore in connection with the work done. But we have got Rs 18 crore from them for non-completion of the task,” said N G Gowdaiah, superintending engineer, engineering section, BDA.
“The Rs 7 crore paid by the company as security deposit, Rs 9 crore as earnest money deposit and Rs 2 crore, which is the equipment’s worth, will automatically become BDA’s possession now as they have violated the conditions of the contract,” Gowdaiah said.
The saving grace for BDA is that the public will not be affected in any way as the allotment of flats has not been made so far.
Second such incident
The same Deepak Cables was involved in a similar incident in Gunjur (near Marathahalli) where 530 BDA flats were supposed to be constructed.
“The contracts of Deepak Cables and MSKR Infrastructure Pvt Ltd were terminated in December 2016 due to non completion of the job and we are processing a new contract now,” the BDA said. However, in the case of Gunjur, the flats were allotted to the public who are still waiting to get hold of their flats.
Deepak Cables was asked for their response but they did not respond. Calls made to Lanco Infratech Ltd went unanswered.