The policy making standing committee of the civic body on Thursday approved a proposal to blacklist two companies for five years for delaying seven housing projects worth over Rs 500 crore.
Jyoti InfraTech company and Vande Mataram Projects Pvt Ltd had received contracts from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in 2019 to build a total of 6,370 houses in seven public housing projects under the LIG Phase-II and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
The projects were supposed to be completed within 24 months, but the companies did not finish 10% to 60% of the work. The AMC had issued several notices to the companies, but they stopped the work citing price hike and other reasons.
The AMC will now have to bear an extra burden of Rs 100 crore to restart the work with new contractors. The LIG Phase-II housing projects were coming up at Sola-Thaltej TP scheme 42, Shahwadi TP scheme 94 and were being constructed by Vande Matram Project Pvt Ltd. “The two projects, which were to be completed within 24 months were worth Rs 69.62 crore and work orders were formally allotted in August 2019 to contractor. The contractor has been blacklisted,” said a senior AMC official in housing project division.
Under various project packages under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, thousands of housing units were to be constructed. This includes 1,568 apartments in package 19; 1,295 apartments under package 23; 946 apartments under package 24; 1,041 apartments under package 26; and 1,520 apartments under package 27.
In December 2019, the AMC had allotted five housing projects to Jyoti InfraTech company at a 13-15% reduced rate. The agency could not complete even 10% of the work.