There have been no takers yet for the work tender on the escalator which will be used to cross the railway tracks on GB Road here.
The municipality floated the tender three times for installing the escalator on both sides of the railway tracks where the GB Road meets a dead-end at a cost of ₹1.73 crore. But no contractor responded because of the payment conditions stipulated by the Local Self-Government Department.
The efforts of the municipal authorities to convince the contractors of the importance of the project, the first such in the State, failed as there would be no pre-payment.
‘Only after installation’
Municipal officials said the rules did not permit early payment for such contract work. The municipality can pay the contractor only after installation of the escalators, which will have to be imported by spending about ₹1.5 crore.
The project has been in the pipeline for long as Railways removed the level-crossing on the busy GB Road when it replaced the metregauge tracks with broadgauge between Palakkad and Pollachi a few years ago. The closing of the railway gate divided the GB Road into two, badly affecting the vehicular traffic and the business movement. A steel foot overbridge built near the Palakkad Town railway station did not provide the desired link between the two severed ends of the GB Road.
Under AMRUT scheme
The municipality has taken up the escalator project under the Central government’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. The municipality has given Railways ₹1.48 crore, the amount needed to build the pedestrian platform over the tracks. Railways have begun the work of the overhead pedestrian platform, though at a slow pace.
The municipality, meanwhile, is thinking about revising the tender rates and conditions. Deputy Municipal Chairman C. Krishnakumar said the earlier tenders had been sought as an indoor project. “We will re-float the tenders with revised rates for the outdoor project,” Mr. Krishnakumar said. The tender rates, he said, will be raised accordingly. Escalators are widely used indoors in many public places, including malls and railway stations. Outdoor escalators, as per municipal authorities, will be a great experiment in the State.
