Minister Khandre Directs Officials To Blacklist L&T Over Project Delays
Officials said that L&T had failed to make headway even after being served a final notice.
Bengaluru: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Eshwar B Khandre has directed officials to blacklist Larsen & Toubro (L&T) for failing to make progress on a drinking water project meant to supply 388 rural habitations in Dharwad district and villages in Kalghatgi and Saundatti.
The minister issued the direction at a Jal Jeevan Mission review meeting at Vikas Soudha on Wednesday after officials briefed him on the delay in the project, which is intended to supply water to rural habitations in Dharwad and Belagavi districts and Kalghatgi town from the Renukasagar reservoir.
Officials said that L&T had failed to make headway even after being served a final notice. The company had not initiated the purchase of water pipelines, had failed to deploy adequate manpower and was executing the work at a very slow pace. It had also not been submitting progress reports.
Khandre expressed displeasure over the lack of progress, pointing out that he had already held a meeting with contractors and officials at the department's commissionerate on September 11 and directed them to speed up pending works and submit weekly progress reports.
Despite those instructions, L&T had failed to improve the pace of execution, he said, directing officials to blacklist the company.
The minister also took a serious view of delays by other contractors executing multi-village drinking water projects and asked officials to issue final notices to all agencies that had failed to meet their deadlines.
He said delays, except those caused by pending forest clearance, would not be accepted. The purpose of the projects would be defeated if contractors failed to complete the works on time, particularly when several parts of the state were facing drinking water shortages due to inadequate rainfall.
Department Principal Secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Secretary D Randeep, Commissioner Fouzia Tarannum B, Venkataraju, CEO Rahul Shinde and other officials attended the meeting.