Devineni fumes over slow progress of courts complex works

Vijayawada: Water resources minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao fumed at the delay in construction court buildings. He inspected the works at Governorpet, here on Saturday.

The state government allocated Rs 58 crore to build new court buildings in Governopet and the contractor entered into agreement agreeing to complete the works by 2017.

Superintending engineer Sheshu Kumar said that they had an agreement with the contractor on February 14, 2014 but works were not started immediately due to change of designs.

“The new designs were submitted on May 2015 and a fine of Rs 12 lakh had been imposed on contractor for liquidate damage as per agreement” he said. He also said around Rs 10.50 crore was spent till now but the progress work was not satisfied.

“We made repeated warnings to contractor on speed up of works, but no use. A meeting with contractor will be on Monday to review the progress and a decision will be taken on that day on how to go forward on the works” he said.

The Minister said people and lawyers were suffering due to slow progress of works. He suggested to engineering officials to pay dues of Rs 1.50 crore to contractor and take measures to speed up works.

He also told the superintending engineer to arrange a meeting with Bar Association on Monday to discuss with contractor on work progress.