Compensation delaying road project: CM Pema Khandu

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Thursday said that execution of the Potin to Panging stretch of the ambitious Trans Arunachal Highway (TAH) project is delayed due to compensation issue.

The 407-kilometer-long Potin-Pangin stretch of the TAH which got mired in controversy, is considered as the lifeline for six districts of the State.

Responding to a question by BJP member Lokam Tassar in the House, the Chief Minister informed that the State government had already constituted a fact-finding committee to go into the details of the compensation scam, while the report for the Potin to Bopi stretch is available with the Government.

He also said that the road project has been divided into nine packages and tenders have already been called.

Khandu added that contract works for packages 1, 2 and 7 have already been awarded while evaluation process is on for packages 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9.

The Chief Minister, in response to another supplementary question from BJP member Nyato Rigia, assured to constitute a committee to monitor execution of the road project works.

“The State government is very serious and will start work on the project soon,” the Chief Minister added.

It is worth mentioning here that though the tender process for this stretch of the TAH was started way back in 2012, the project ran into rough weather because of inflated compensation amount on land acquisition, leading to the arrest of several persons, including then Lower Subansiri Deputy Commissioner Kemo Lollen.

PPHL, a Hyderabad-based construction company, left the project in 2018 citing numerous hurdles, including inability of the State government to hand over land on time.

Before its departure, the PPHL had written a letter to the Government stating that it reserves the right to claim damages because of the cost incurred as it had already mobilized resources, including machineries, and payment of performance security guarantee money.

The PPHL had signed an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contract with Naharlagun-based TK Engineering Consortium Pvt Ltd on September 19, 2014, to construct the Potin to Pangin stretch of the TAH.

Both the companies reportedly suffered heavy losses as the State government confirmed availability of 80 per cent land (Right of Way) only in December 2017.

After the project was terminated in 2018, it was decided that it would be done in nine packages on the same stretch. The DPR (Detailed Project Report) was submitted to the union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH).

Again in January 28, 2019, the MoRTH decided that the project will be done in three packages, for which tender was called on February 28 the same year.

After extension of the tender process thrice, it materialized in June 2019. However, there were no takers for packages ‘A’ and ‘B’. Only one firm participated in the tender process for package ‘C’.

After the no-show, the Ministry has decided to go back to the nine packages instead of three.

The Trans-Arunachal Highway covers 1,559 km and extends from Tawang in western part to Kanubari in the eastern side of the State.

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