New water project likely to delay by one month?

Aurangabad, Jan 4:

The implementation of the new water supply scheme, of Rs 1680 crore, is likely to be delayed by one month as the Hyderabad-based contractor has not submitted the bank guarantee (BG) to the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP). The chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had inaugurated the project in the city on December 12, 2020.

MJP is the nodal agency of the project. It had awarded the contract to the above contractor at 9.9 per cent above the estimated cost. After the project''s inauguration, the MJP had directed to submit the bank guarantee of Rs 26 crore by December 20, but it is yet to be submitted.

According to the sources, " The contractor is in confusion and had also not initiated to start the office in the city. Hence it is unpredictable when would the project begins."

MJP superintending engineer Ajay Singh said, " The contractor had requested us to grant extension in submitting the bank guarantee. He had assured of submitting it in the first week of January after Christmas. Hence, we had granted an extension, and the contractor will be completing the due procedure in four days."