KOCHI: While an amicable solution is far away for the residents of Mundemveli flats, the audit report accessed by TNIE uncovered the irregularities in handing over the construction project to Thrissur District Labour Contract Cooperative Society (TDLCCS), which didn’t have the accreditation for undertaking cost-effective construction work.
TDLCCS, which has a good track record in completion of projects including Kochi Metro stations and CIAL runway, entered into an agreement with Greater Cochin Development Authority in October 2020. Though TDLCCS is an accredited agency for all government civil construction work as Non-Project Management Consultancy, there is no mention of its capability to undertake cost-effective construction work or build steel structures.
In the contract agreement with GCDA, TDLCCS has been named as a construction agency of the project instead of an accredited agency, raising concerns about whether removing the accredited agency tag was intentional. TDLCCS was selected for executing the project without any bidding process based on the fact that it was an accredited agency, but it was later omitted from the contract agreement, which raises suspicion.
Similarly, GCDA chairman K Chandran Pillai, overcoming the objections of then secretary, sanctioned a fund of Rs 2.44 crore towards mobilisation advance for the project, by withdrawing a fixed deposit held by the institution, which was in violation of existing norms.
While the construction work still remain under scanner, documents revealed that the actual project design was changed without consulting expert agencies. It is also alleged that the project cost was not revised overtime.
The actual plan had envisaged ring type steel reinforcement for piling while it was changed to superior quality helical type in later stages. However the revised cost was not taken into account which led to cost overrun.
According to T G Sajeev, president of TDLCCS, “it was GCDA authorities who approached us to take up the project as no one else including Uralungal Society was ready to undertake the work.
The actual estimate we submitted was of Rs 20 crore, but GCDA urged us to cut it short to Rs 14 crore. We urged them to take expert advice of SILK (Steel Infrastructure Limited Kerala) before going ahead with the plan. LIFE Mission had recommended to get the project okayed by IIT before its implementation. Yet, none of these suggestions were followed and now we are facing issues because of that.”
He also added that the actual project had provisions to build sun-shades and roof-top structure but these were dropped by GCDA during construction stage as part of cost-cutting.
As per TDLCCS, the project resulted in a loss of Rs 5.5 crore for the society, and the cost of repair work was beyond their limits. TDLCCS is yet to get over Rs 18 crore dues from the state government, putting the institution in severe financial squeeze.
