The blame game that Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is involved in with Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and Scoomi Engineering over cost escalation of the monorail is set to drag on.
The blame game that Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is involved in with Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and Scoomi Engineering over cost escalation of the monorail is set to drag on. L&T and Scoomi, in their claims submitted to arbitration committee, have blamed the MMRDA for the cost escalation.
To evaluate the cost escalation, an arbitration committee was formed with three former bureaucrats as members of the committee.
“The contractors blame the state government and the MMRDA for delay over acquiring land for the project, granting Right of Way (ROW) and frequent changes in the alignment, which resulted in the project getting delayed and the cost of the project increasing,” said a senior MMRDA official not wishing to be named.
The MMRDA has indicated that it would impose penalty in the form of liquidated damages on the contractors citing the clause of contract agreement. “There has been an escalation in costs due to change in alignment and we are ready to pay for this. But when we calculate the penalty, we do not think there will be anything to be paid to the contractors from the MMRDA’s part. We have so far paid '2,000 crore and the rest, which the contractors expect us to pay for the delay, will be adjusted in exchange of the penalty amount. We will also maintain our side in the arbitration committee,” the MMRDA official added.
The project was pegged at '2,700 crore in 2008 and was awarded to L&T and Scoomi Engineering of Malaysia for carrying out the work.
The project’s deadline has been extended repeatedly. Both the phases of monorail were scheduled to be completed by November 2010. However, work for phase-1 between Wadala and Chembur was started in 2014 and phase-2 between Wadala to Jacob Circle is yet to be made open for the public, as the works have not been completed yet.
“Both the contractors are willing to settle the matter and wrap up the project as soon as possible and we expect to have positive results after the evaluation of arbitration committee. If the matter is not solved soon, we will have to involve the executive committee of the MMRDA and the last option is court,” the MMRDA official added.
