Tender of Narkota bridge of Rudraprayag allegedly awarded without tendering process n more than Rs 7 crores paid in the first leg of construction : Jakhmola, journalist

A journalist of Uttarakhand has sought detailed information on the Narkota Bridge under construction at Rudraprayag, the shutting of which was demolished on 20 th July revealing that there had been alleged embezzlement of several crores of rupees as not only the contract of this bridge was accorded to a Meerut firm without going through a transparent tendering process but Rs 7 crores were paid in the first leg of construction out of the total project cost of 60 crores. Two construction workers had died during the destruction of the shuttering of this bridge while six were grievously injured wrote renowned journalist of Uttarakhand Gunanand Jakhmola. According to a Facebook post the journalist Mr. Jakhmola, said that he filed an RTI query at 10 National Roads, Circle, PWD, seeking information on six points. The information given through RTI was that the construction of the bridge will be completed in 2023 and total cost involved is Rs. 66 crores, 30 Lakhs, 83 thousand and and 832. He also sought information on the profile of the companies involved in the construction of this bridge including details of the comparative rates. According to journalist Jakhmola the information received in this regard was shocking. The RTI information revealed that the work was carried out by forming a supplementary contract against the amount taken from RVNL under work deposit acount. According to the established departmental norms the provision of supplimentary contracts are valid or legally feasible up to the limit of merely Rs. 2.5 lakhs budget said Jakhmola. Thereafter the tenders should be given to the deserving company on competitive basis but in this case shockingly all the legal norms were thrown to winds and the contract allotted to a Meerut company named as RCC Developers said the social media post of journalist Gunanand Jakhmola. What is more surprising is the fact that when the shuttering of the Narkota Bridge, Rudraprayag came down killing two labourers and injuring six others, on 30 August, no new tender process was commenced n instead the responsibility was given to the chief engineer 1, PWD. What is interesting to note is the chief engineer of the Narkota, was Mr. Pramod Kumar and now since he has taken charge of NH he is the one who’ll take decision of delivering contract to the firm of his choice. Now the bigger question is how would the decision be taken now? asked Jakhmola. In addition to this Jakhmola got information from the executive engineer Srinagar, Garhwal that in the first stage payment the RCC Developers were handed over the cheque of Rs. 9 crores 75 laks. The information given under RTI regarding the bridge designing details are not readable said Jakhmola unambiguously shedding light on the fact that the information is completely deceptive. He plans to finally approach the information commission as journalist Jakhmola is sure of this entire process a great shady affair.