The Lhuentse District Administration and the District Level Technical Committee terminated the contract works of two contractors in Minjey Gewog. The contracts were terminated last month for repeated delays in completing the drainage works along the Minjey Gewog Centre road and for failing to start wall construction works at the Amdrangchhu bridge. The cases have been registered with the Bhutan Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre.
The Lhuentse district administration awarded contract works to lay Granular Sub Base, GSB and drainage construction to Tacho Construction Private Limited in December 2020. The project was worth over Nu 29 M.
Despite finishing the laying of GSB on the 18-kilometre road, the contractor failed to complete the drainage works even after several deadline extensions.
‘‘Despite several reminders, both contractors failed to carry out the work on time. That is why we had to terminate the contracts. The very reason we give them a certain duration to start the work is so that the quality of the work is not compromised. That is why we need to start on time and complete on time,” said Wangchen Norbu, Senior Lhuentse Dzongrab.
‘‘He could not start the work for about three months after we have awarded the works. Then, he worked for around two to three months by deploying many vehicles and machines on the site. In the middle of the work, he left it like that. We do not know what the reason is. If we say he is working, we cannot see people working there, and if we say he is not working, we can see some people and a machine at the site,” said Jigme Tenzin Zangpo, Minjey Gup.
BBS contacted Tacho Construction Private Limited. The contractor explained that the work was delayed as he had to carry out similar construction work in another district.
Similarly, contract works to build walls of a newbailey bridge at Amdrangchhu in Minjey Gewog, given to National Builders Construction Private Limited were terminated after the contractor failed to start the work. The district administration had issued several notifications and reminders before the contract was terminated. The project costing Nu 5 M was awarded in December last year.
The owner of National Builders Construction Private Limited denied the district administration’s claim of his company failed to start the work. He said he was given the first payment as well as he had done the initial work. However, the Gewog office said they have not released any amount to the contractor.
Meanwhile, the residents living in Chengling and Amdrangchhu villages are frustrated and requesting the district administration to continue the work.
‘‘When they leave the work half done, we get frustrated. This is the first time projects like these are carried out in our gewog. The first phase of the base course laying work started from our gewog, and when the work is not completed, we can not start the second phase. This is impacting our performance,” said Zepa Jatsho, Minjey-Wazing Tshogpa.
‘‘We have supported as much as we can to the contractors. But we didn’t understand why the work was left behind. The district and gewog administrations also supported the projects. We would be grateful if the remaining work are continued. If the works do not progress, our road condition will become worse. We will be happy if the gewog office and the government could look for another contractor and continue the works,’’ said Sonam Lhamo, a resident of Tongling.
The district administration said that until the Bhutan Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre views and passes a decision on the cases, no way forward can be planned as of now.
Karma Wangdi/Rinchen Tobgay, Lhuntse
Edited by Kipchu
