The Belagavi City Corporation has decided to initiate legal action against a private construction company for delay in meeting deadlines.
Corporation Commissioner Ashok Dudgunti has issued a notice to L&T Limited asking its officers to pay a fine of ₹21 crore for violating agreement norms regarding drinking water supply to the city.
The company has entered into a Design, Build Operate and Transfer agreement with the city corporation for providing water supply to the city.
Mr. Dudgunti told journalists that during a recent meeting, some corporation members had observed that physical progress of the city water supply works has been far less than expected.
Field inspection by officials revealed that the overall achievement has been only 30%, including physical achievement at around 36% for bulk components and 22% for distribution works. This is in clear contravention of the agreement that mandates completing the works in 60 months.
City corporation field officials have reported that a very small number of works have been completed in 39 months. A preliminary inspection has revealed that the progress in July and August 2023 has been far below expectation.
The company has also failed to achieve the milestones that are supposed to be met along the way and not just at the end of the contract period, Mr. Dudgunti said.
As per the conditions in the DBOT contract, the party is liable to pay liquidated damages to the city corporation, if it does not achieve timely milestones, the Commissioner said.
