The civic body will pay the extra amount to a consultant for a two-year extension of its contract
Workers seen at the construction site of the coastal road at Marine Lines, in May this year. File pic
Further extension of the deadline for completion of the coastal road work is going to cost the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) an additional Rs 6 crore. The civic body will pay the extra amount to the consultant for a two-year extension – one year of pre-consultation work and one year for construction activities. The work is already running behind schedule.
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On January 23, 2017 M/s AECOM Asia Company Limited was appointed as the general consultant for the coastal road project. The BMC had decided on a 68-month time frame for completion of the project and Rs 34.92 crore was sanctioned as consultation fees. This included eight months of pre-consultation work, three years of construction activities and two years of defect liability period.
Now, the civic administration has proposed to increase the charges for the consultancy company by Rs 5.91 crore. “The additional charges are for an extension of 24 months and six days, which includes a delay of 12 months and six days of the pre-consultation period and 12 months of the construction work period. Earlier, the contract was for a period of three years, but now it will be for four years. The period of construction will come to an end in October 2023, and it may be extended further,” said a BMC official.
Work on the coastal road project started on December 16, 2018. Though construction work continued even during the lockdowns, various issues related to court battles over environmental clearances, fisherfolks’ agitation over livelihood and technical problems delayed the project. As of now, 45 per cent of the work has been completed. Two tunnels, each of length 2.07-km, will be dug up under Malabar Hill. The excavation work of the first tunnel started in January this year.
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