Rs.10,000-crore works come to a halt in Kerala

Works totalling Rs.10,000 crore came to a grinding halt on Friday after a boycott by 30,000 contractors in protest against the delay in settling their bills which have mounted to Rs.2,500 crore.

The works that have stalled pertain mainly to roads, including Phase 2 of the World Bank-aided Kerala State Transport Project, and construction of buildings and 40 bridges under the Public Works Department (PWD).

The boycott is being spearheaded by the Joint Action Council, an umbrella organisation of eight associations, including the All Kerala Government Contractors Association that has 4,500 members on the rolls.

The contractors have been up in arms since June boycotting tenders to pressurise the government to settle the bills, which are pending since October last. The council resorted to the boycott after a meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on July 17 in the capital city failed to give an assurance on settling the bills.

Joint Action Council general convener P. Viswanathan told The Hindu that monitoring committees had been set up in all districts to ensure that the works were not executed till the bills were settled.

The contractors plan to halt the work on flagship projects such as the Kochi Metro. “Finance Minister K.M. Mani is non-committal on clearing the arrears. We are ready to resume the works if we get an assurance that arrears for three months will be settled before Onam,” Mr. Viswanathan said.

Of the Rs.2,500-crore arrears, Rs.1,800 crore pertains to road works and Rs.700 crore for building and irrigation works.

Official sources said Rs.1,718 crore was due till May. Of this, Rs.1,370 crore was for road works, Rs.332 for buildings, and Rs.16.5 crore for National Highways.

The other demands of the contractors include rollback of the decision to collect 14.5 purchase tax along with compounding fee and implementation of the revised PWD manual.

The contractors are also demanding steps to make available metal and sand in view of the curbs following a National Green Tribunal ruling. Of the 2,300 quarries, only 100 are authorised.

Pothole filling

Acknowledging the crisis in the wake of the boycott and shortage of metal, Minister for Public Works V.K. Ebrahim Kunju said Rs.50,000 each had been given to 176 Assistant Engineers and Rs.1 crore each to 15 PWD divisions to fill potholes on the roads.