Jammu-Akhnoor road widening project: Govt penalises firm for missing repeated deadlines

Jammu, Jun 2: After failing to meet the deadline for completion of its allotted work under the Jammu-Akhnoor Road Widening Project, the contractor firm has been slapped with a penalty of over Rs 15.00 crore by the government.
National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) vide its official communication dated 31-05-2023 has informed that a penalty of Rs 15.79 Crore (fifteen hundred and Seventy lac) has been imposed against the contractor Company namely M/S Tarmat Ltd. for the delay in completion of its work within the stipulated period of time.
NHIDCL has revealed the information in response to an application filed by social activist Raman Sharma under the Right to Information Act.
The RTI reply served to information seeker Sharma and signed by SPS Sangwan, General Manager(P), NHIDCL, Akhnoor further informs that the stipulated completion date (under package-III) was fixed as 23/12/2021 which was later extended till 30/03/2023 and despite the extension of 163 days the contractor company failed to meet the deadline and again a new deadline has been fixed by 31/12/2023.
M/S Tarmat Ltd Company has been awarded tender work under package-III (from Km 06.000 to Km 26.350) of Jammu Akhnoor Road Widening Project with a bid amount of Rs 193.99 Crore.
An Amount of Rs 131.05 Crore has been released to the company till date with 71.86 % Physical Progress of Work and 67.56 % Financial Progress.
In response to the query related to the penalty amount so far submitted by the firm, the NHIDCL reply stated that till date an amount of Rs 5.5 Crore has been withheld from the bills of the Contractor Company on the amount of penalty.
The final date for completion of this important Jammu Akhnoor Road Widening project has been fixed as 13 March 202. [KNT]