GURUGRAM: The MCG is all set to miss the deadline of road reconstruction projects in the city because private contractors are dragging their feet, wary about the impact of the Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) that will be rolled out on July 1.

“There is a delay of around 20 days in the road repair work as many private contractors do not know which tax bracket they will fall under. There are apprehensions if the tax will be high or low. Contractors are looking for more clarity on the new tax system, and the work will resume once this clarity is gained,” said V Umashankar, MCG commissioner.

The MCG had started road reconstruction work across the city in February at a cost of Rs 102.499 crore. The roads are largely bituminous, while some are concrete roads, where clogging of drainage is highly possible. While the contract states that the work will be completed by January 2018, keeping in mind the urgency, the civic authorities claimed that they had asked the contractors to complete the work by June 30, before the monsoon arrives in the city.

In order to meet the five-month deadline, the authorities claimed to have asked the contractors to start the construction work at multiple locations simultaneously. However, things seem to have slowed down considerably as the work is yet to begin in at least four sectors – 14, 15, 17 and 21.

Now that the monsoon is almost here, the authorities claimed the road repair work in these four sectors would start in September. “There are some sectors, in which we have been able to finish all the work, but there are several other sectors, in which some work remains unfinished. The construction work in four sectors has been held up owing to inclement weather. We will try to start work here, if the weather holds. Otherwise, we will start only after the monsoon gets over by the end of August,” an MCG official told TOI.

“Apart from uncertainty surrounding the GST, there were some other issues which delayed the road reconstruction work in the city. In fact, we have still been able to carry out the construction work, while other departments like public works department (building and roads) have almost stopped all road-related projects. We hope that from July 1, after the GST rollout, the construction work will get back on track, and we will be able to complete the projects before this yearend,” he said.

Residents, however, complained that the MCG authorities should have come up with a better plan to execute the road construction work. “It is common knowledge that by June end, monsoon will arrive and GST will kick in. None of these two came as a surprise. All that was required was to ensure there was better planning on part of the MCG and had they taken adequate measures, the road reconstruction work would have been completed and the residents would have been spared the horror of commuting on potholed roads and walking on submerged roads,” said Ankit Tyagi, a sector 21 resident.

Meanwhile, commuters continue to experience hardship while travelling on the old Delhi road where the concrete road construction work is on. The authorities say that it will take about a month more to finish the work here, after which the work on constructing storm water drain will begin.

