Mangalore: Scarcity of Engineers, Labourers Reason for Seeking Builders' Help - Palemar
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, Sep 26: As an initiative towards the development of roads in city limits with the help of builders, the second round of meeting chaired by district in-charge minister Krishna J Palemar, MLA Yogish Bhat and Mayor Praveen was held at Monday September 26.
After intense discussions, it was decided that the KPT to Maravoor stretch (Visweswarayya Road) will be made ‘ideal’ and the work for the same will commence from October 6. To complete all the other road works a deadline of 6 months was set.
Palemar clarified that the road work is done by MCC, however due to scant number of engineers and labourers, builders' co-operation has been sought. There is no point in insulting MCC engineers, he said.
Only the main roads were developed with the Rs 100-crore grant released by the chief minister for road work, while the work related to footpath, drainage, and placing of electricity poles were pending.
Palemar said that if the released fund is not utilised by the MCC on time, there be chances of sanctioned money elapsing, hence, this method, as alleged by former MLA Vijaykumar Shetty, is not intended to benefit builders but aims at the overall development of the city. For some road works tender procedures were over, while due to lack of labour force in MCC, work could not be initiated. With builders providing their labourers now the work will get a facelift, he added.
After the work of KPT to Maravoor stretch, other 23 roads in the city of about 35-km stretch will be improved, for which materials will be supplied by government agency ‘Nirmithi Kendra'. The cost of the road work will be borne by the government and builders have the responsibility of providing the labour force. During the meeting it was decided to provide about 80 engineers for this work.
When Lancy Mascarenhas of Lancy Constructions agreed to take up the work of 1.5 km of Hoigebail road at his own cost, which received approval from the minister for his concern towards society, another builder of Brigade Constructions declined to extend his cooperation on the grounds that he was not given license by the MCC.
This irked both the minister and the MLA, who said that this was a good initiative and needs cooperation from all. Brigade Constructions being a national-level construction company should not back out from this cause, they said. Later, there was a compromise formula on the issue with K C Naik of Credai suggesting that all builders will take up 23 different roads for development.
KMC administration agreed to bear the overall cost of the the development of the KMC 6th and 7th cross road in Attavar, informed corporator Ranganath Kini at the meeting.