Relief for company after contract to construct flyover terminated by K’taka govt

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed Kolkata-based Simplex Infrastructures Ltd, whose contract to build a flyover between Ejipura and Kendriya Sadan was cancelled, to file an affidavit giving an undertaking to complete the project in a time-bound manner.

The company’s contract to build the 2.5 km flyover between Ejipura and Kendriya Sadan was cancelled by the State government on March 3. The state had directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to float fresh tenders for the flyover.

The Karnataka High Court asked the company, ”to file an affidavit giving undertaking to complete the project within a time-bound manner.” The bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice S R Krishan Kumar was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the delay in construction of the flyover. The court said engaging a new company and starting the process of tender all over again may further delay the project.

”Considering the facts that in case a new agency is engaged in completing the remaining work of the project flyover and the process involved in engaging new agency, which may delay the project and also considering the requirement of completion of project in public interest, we permit the Respondent-4 to file an affidavit,” the bench said.

The state has cancelled the contract as the flyover was not completed even two years after the deadline. The BBMP had claimed that more than 50 per cent of the work on the flyover was pending following which the Urban Development Department has ordered cancellation of contract and freezing of the company’s account.