Kohima, April 10 (MExN): In response to Lotha Hoho and Rengma Hoho’s ultimatum to the Nagaland State government for widening of the National Highway 2 (earlier NH 61) in Tseminyu and Wokha sectors, the PWD (NH), Kohima today appealed to all concerned to bear with the inconveniences and wait for the tender process to be completed.
Chief Engineer, PWD (NH) in a statement maintained that the tender process was delayed by three weeks due to the statewide ‘Bandh’ in the month of February, 2017.
The Letter of Acceptance (LOA) for Package II (From Km 56.00 to Km 72.40) has already been issued on March 31, 2017, while tender evaluation is in progress for Package I (from Km 40.00 to Km 56.00) and is likely to be awarded by last part of April, he added. For Package I, bids had to be invited two times since one bidder out of two was found to be ‘non-responsive.’
Unlike other contract procurement systems which take about 1 to 2 months, it was informed, Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC) mode adopted for the instant project will take a considerable period of time to complete the tendering process. “However, once the process is completed, the progress of work will be smooth and will be strictly completed within the stipulated time,” the Chief Engineer assured.
Recounting the circumstances leading to delay in the project, the statement informed that the project “Widening to 2-lane from Km 40.00 to Km 72.40 of NH-61 under NH Division Kohima in the State of Nagaland” was sanctioned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) on June 18, 2010 for an amount of Rs. 9368.08 lakhs. Tenders were invited and the work was awarded to M/S Meenakshi Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.
However, a case pertaining to award of works of the project was filed in the Court and the case went through a long process of litigation, it said. Finally, the MORTH foreclosed the project on February 19, 2015.
Following this, the instant project under the nomenclature “Strengthening and widening to 2-lane with paved shoulder of NH-61 from Km 40.00 to Km 72.40 under EPC mode in the State of Nagaland” was sanctioned by MORTH on October 31, 2016. The project was split into two packages: Package I – From Km 40.00 to Km 56.00; Package II – From Km 56.00 to Km 72.40.
Bids were invited and Technical Bids for both the packages were opened on January 20, 2017.
