World Bank aided road projects in Orissa jinxed?

Express News Service
09 Sep 2009,BBSR:

Three World Bank-assisted infrastructure projects worth over Rs 400 crore have remained a non-starter even after a year of awarding of contracts due to lack of cooperation from the Government.The World Bank sanctioned loan for widening and strengthening of three roads under the Orissa State Road Project. Tenders were invited for the three projects in January 2008.

While contract for the 41-km stretch of road from Berhampur to Taptapani was awarded in May last year, the other two packages - 95-km long Chandabali-Bhadrak-Anandapur and 68-km Bhawanipatna-Khariar road were awarded in September 2008.As per the agreement, the Berhampur-Taptapani project with an estimated cost of Rs 81.97 crore was scheduled to start on November 22, 2008 and the date of completion was November 24, 2010. The work progress is nil.

Similar is the fate of the other two projects. The contract of the Chandabali-Bhadrak-Anandapur road project with an agreement value of Rs 216.23 crore was awarded in September last year and the project was scheduled to start in February. The expenditure on the project so far is Rs 2.8 crore.

Although the scheduled date of commencement of the Bhawanipatna-Khariar road was February 20, work on the project is yet to start. Contract of the Rs 105.51-crore project was awarded in September last year.

This came to the notice of the World Bank team on Orissa State Road Project (OSRP) during a review of the infrastructure projects here today.Country head of SNEC (India) Pvt Ltd, the consultancy firm for the road projects, Ian Alderson reportedly told the meeting that his firm is not getting desired support from the chief engineer of the World Bank project. While complaining of unwanted interference from the government officers connected with the project, he said frequent transfer of engineers had severely hampered the progress.The World Bank team headed by Rajesh Rohatgi will visit the three project sites for an on-the-spot assessment. The team is scheduled to visit Bhawanipatna tomorrow.