Koderma: The construction work of the newly sanctioned Karma medical college and hospital in Jharkhand’s Koderma has come to a halt after the private agency responsible for the work attributed the reason to the pending payment from the state government.
The private agency which has taken up the contract for constructing the college has completed around 20% of the work, after which it has stopped the work, alleging that the state government hasn’t paid them the pending amount, Rs 5 crore.
The workers working there are reported to have gone back, and the agency has not been paid for the past six months, reports the Live Hindustan.
The private agency recruited by the state government for the construction work is Simplex Infrastructure Limited which was given the contract on August 2, 2019. The college’s foundation stone was laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 with an estimated budget of Rs 319.68 crore.
The college would be coming up in an area over 69.86 acres with an estimated number of 100 MBBS seats once it is ready. The college has already missed its sanctioned deadline of January 7, 2022, which was the decided date for its completion, reports the Times of India.
Sanjeev Kundu, deputy general manager of Simplex infrastructure said, “The construction work hampered owing to the non-payment of the pending bills in tune to about Rs 5 crore. Without the release of the pending bills, it is not possible to continue. We sent several reminders in this regard to the monitoring agency, but no concrete decision has been taken so far.”
According to Amit Kumar, executive engineer of the Building Construction Corporation said that the construction work came to a stop due to the Durga puja, adding that the private agency is not showing interest since they are owed an amount of Rs 5 crore.
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