Physician Dr Kakkilaya wonders why there were elections to the city corporation at all. “It has been eight months and we are yet to get a mayor and the local body governing. It is indeed surprising that the political party, now at the helm both at the state government and at the city corporation, has not taken any interest in resolving the issue, apparently arising out of bickering within its own ranks,” says the physician. Without mayor, all development and even maintenance works within the city seem to have been stalled.

The Tulunadu Rakshana Vedike on Monday took out a protest demanding immediate repairs and asphalt to the Kulshekar-Shakthi Nagar road.

Arun Kumar, president of the vedike, observes that many vehicles have met with accidents. Vehicles hitting pedestrians or going off the road while avoiding potholes are common.

Dr Kakkilaya notes in the absence of an approved budget for an entire year, it is impossible to know the flow of money into and out of the corporation’s coffers. “The only decision that seems to have been taken, and a dubious one at that, is the re-appointment of the retired health officer, who was under suspension for some time during his last tenure. If that is any pointer, then nothing much can be expected, even if a new mayor were to take office in the near future,” he adds.

Neil Rodrigues, senior project manager at Infosys, also chairman of Mangalore Round Table, points out that Kodialguth East road is in a deplorable condition. “With no proper garbage clearance system in place, residents have converted an empty plot into a dumping yard,” Neil said.

But in some cases, the corporators seem to respond despite not being inducted into council officially.

Ruchir Agarwal of Shivbagh says things were in a bad shape with weeds growing all over. “Corporator Sabitha responded to my call promptly and started the work of grass cutting which is almost complete as of now,” he says. However, he notes that there is garbage dumped indiscriminately on road sides by some people which needs to be cleared up.

On June 6, the BMC had approached Central Railway for expediting the construction of road overbridges at Vidyavihar and widening of a road overbridge at Nahur station across railway tracks on deposit terms.

The proposal has been agreed upon by the zonal railway and the chief administrative officer has been entrusted with executing the projects. The approach routes to the road overbridges will be constructed by the civic body. “A joint site feasibility by the BMC and railway officials showed the current construction scheme was not feasible. The civic body has been advised to submit revised drawings again. The BMC has agreed for the same, but till now it has not submitted any drawings,” Kharge wrote.

Alarmed by the plight of commuters, Sapra had personally called on Chavan and Kharge saying both the projects should be completed soonin a time bound period. He had also taken it up with civic chief Sitaram Kunte. “All along, we were told all the relevant plans have been submitted to Central Railway. But from Kharge’s communication, it appears that BMC officials have given us wrong information,” Sapra said.

Responding to Kharge, Chavan wrote to the railway minister stating that fresh directions will be given to the principal secretary (urban development) and civic chief to submit revised general agreement drawings of the RoBs to the railway administration.

NAGPUR: Regular travelers to Kanhan and beyond have a reason to cheer as public works department (PWD) has decided to build a new bridge on Kanhan River on Jabalpur road (NH7). The existing bridge is extremely narrow and its life is almost over. Traffic jams have become a regular feature on this bridge.Meanwhile, regional office of  National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), set up in city just 18 months ago, has been shifted to Mumbai.

A PWD official said tenders for the bridge would be floated soon. “We had submitted the proposal to state government months ago. State government wanted Centre to fund the project but the latter was reluctant. Finally, Centre cleared the proposal on September 23,” he said.

The new bridge will be a two lane structure and its length will be 390 metres. Bridge users will not be required to wait at the railway level crossing. Its cost is Rs 46.46 crore of which Rs 36 crore is the work and remaining land acquisition cost and other charges. “We will have to acquire railway land on Kamptee side and Nagpur University and private land on Kanhan side,” the official said. The fate of the old bridge will be decided after the new one is opened for traffic. Going by the past experience the new bridge will likely take four to five years for completion.

There is another good news for citizens. “Central government had issued a circular in 1988 whereby state governments were to maintain roads constructed by NHAI. However, most state governments did not follow the circular and demanded that NHAI maintain the roads. Now Centre has agreed to take over maintenance of NHAI roads,” a NHAI official told TOI.

The official further said the regional office would shift to Mumbai from November 16. “It will not affect the local projects as the project director’s office at Hill Top will remain here. The western region office was monitoring projects all over Maharashtra. As all regional offices are located in state capitals, Maharashtra’s office too is being shifted to Mumbai. The office strength was only around 15, most of whom were senior officials,” he said.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Widening of Chengannur-Ettumanoor-Muvattupuzha stretch of Main Central Road under the second phase of the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) is likely to get delayed as the state government is still pressing World Bank to accept the lowest bidder, which is falling short in meeting the qualifying criteria. The government file containing a set of correspondences between the World Bank country office and the KSTP office, accessed by TOI under the Right To Information Act, revealed that the tug of war between the bank and the project office over the tender process is still continuing.World Bank, which funds the second phase of the KSTP, had refused to give NOC to Chennai-based NAPC Ltd, the lowest bidder for the 47-km Chengannur-Ettumannur road and 40.96-km Ettumannur-Muvattupuzha road widening project. According to it, the bidder has fallen short in meeting the qualifying criteria of production rate of Gabion wall. Gabion wall is the retaining wall made of stacked stone-filled steel wire cages to abate erosion. Compared to concrete retaining walls, Gabions are environment-friendly and long-lasting.

As per World Bank guidelines, the bidders must have constructed Gabion retaining wall of 7,200 cubic metres. NAPC has a shortfall of 15% in the individual package evaluation and 35% in combined evaluation. Since World Bank refused to give NOC the steering committee led by chief secretary has decided to suggest three options. In a letter dated October 4 the bank expressed willingness to accept the third option which is to give the second lowest bidder Essar the first stretch and NAPC the second. However, the government is still pushing for the first option. In reply to the letter sent by the chief secretary it has been stated that the government preferred to consider NAPC for both stretches.

PWD minister V K Ebrahim Kunju said that if one stretch is awarded to the second lowest bidder, it will result in excess cost of Rs11.45 crore. Also, there is a chance that the lowest bidder may go for litigation, which might delay the project, he added.

For the Rs242.65-crore project of the first stretch from Chengannur-Ettumannur, NAPC has quoted Rs 233.94 crore and Essar Sacyr Rs 245.39 crore. For the Ettumannur-Muvattupuzha stretch of Rs166.75 crore, NAPC quoted Rs171.49 crore and Essar Sacyr Rs 204.70 crore.

Meanwhile, the state government argues that Gabion wall construction is an insignificant work and most bidders do sub-contracting of the work. It also asked World Bank to consider experience of Vince Group, parent company of NAPC, in Gabion wall construction for the qualifying criteria.