Commencement of work on 21 of the city’s roads, proposed to be covered under the mega city development mission, has been delayed for more than a year due to Metrowater work.
However, work on 339 roads under the first phase of the mega city development mission has already commenced. Work on a large number of these roads is in the final stages of completion.
The State government gave financial approval in February 2012 for the grid-system of roads that will include streetlights, street furniture, footpaths and stormwater drains. Under the first phase of the mega city development mission, the grid-system was planned for all eight zones comprising the expanded areas of Chennai Corporation.
A total of Rs. 333.27 crore was approved by the Corporation for implementation of the grid system covering 360 roads. Over 427 roads were covered in the second phase of the mega city development mission in all 15 zones of the city. But work order in the second phase has been issued for 17 of the 36 packages of the work.
The grid system focuses on clearing traffic bottlenecks around major junctions prone to traffic congestion.
Work orders for the remaining 19 packages have not been issued yet. Many of the eligible class-I contractors continue to be concerned about pilferage of materials and other issues in some areas and seem reluctant to participate in the technical stage of the bid. Some quote high rates to cope with such issues. So, most bids were not accepted by the Corporation officials at the financial stage of the tender.
As civic body’s officials have to continue to adhere to the strict provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act and Rules, a progression of retenders in mega city mission works has set in.
