Nagpur:

’s executive engineer

has come under scanner for allegedly favouring a contractor who failed to meet the deadline to complete road

between

and

. The deadline was until the end of March, but major works are yet to be finished. The existing road is 8-metre wide and work to widen it by four metres on either side is going on.

Jamgade, who is also in-charge of DP (development plan) roads, said that a fresh deadline has been set for the widening work and it should be completed by May 31. He, however, said that the tarring work would be completed after monsoon which means extension of five more months. Jamgade failed to explain why the department has not taken any action against the contractor who had stopped the work for over a month in December last year. Jamgade claimed that the contractor had stopped the work due to a statewide strike of crusher units.

Despite this delay, the department has not taken any action against the contractor. The issue came to fore after a proposal came up for discussion before the standing committee on Tuesday to give a nod to appoint a project management consultant to monitor the road widening and prepare a development plan to construct a bridge adjacent to the existing one on the stretch. City-based Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology did a structural stability study of the site and said that the existing bridge is in good condition and there is no need to demolish it. Hence, the civic body will now construct another bridge, which would increase the project cost. The standing panel too has given its nod to appoint a project management consultant as it would increase the project’s cost by 10.67 lakh.

The panel also gave a nod to the town planning department to start the process to acquire a 6.18 acre land for burial and crematorium ground in khasra number 87/1-3 (84 and 87 part) in Pardi area. Besides, two more plots — 1.70 acre and 1.11 acre in the same area — had been earmarked for roads. The NMC would need 34 crore to acquire the land, even though cost of the land acquisition has almost doubled. TOI has reported the issue several times.

NMC’s assistant director (town planning department) Supriya Thool admitted that the delay in acquiring the land has increased its price. She, however, claimed that following directions by the standing committee, an inquiry had been carried out against officials from the town planning department and they were given a clean chit.

The panel also gave its nod to carry out various developmental works in district guardian minister Chandrasekhar Bawankule’s constituency Hudkeshwar and Narsala. Standing committee chairman Sudhir Raut said that the NMC has received 65 crore from the state government to carry out works in this part of the city.