MMRDA terminates metro line contracts with Simplex, MBZ-RCC

Town planning authority MMRDA on Wednesday said it has terminated contracts awarded to engineering firms Simplex Infrastructure and MBZ-RCC over slow rate of progress on metro line construction.

While Simplex was awarded the contract for constructing 12.7 km of the metro Line 2B on January 9, 2018 at a cost of Rs 1,080 crore, MBZ-RCC had been appointed for construction of an elevated corridor and the depot.

"We had issued repeated reminders through letters to expedite the progress. However, the contractors failed to show any progress and therefore, we have terminated the contracts," Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) said in a statement.

The authority had issued more than 15 letters regarding the slow rate of work progress and five letters to resolve the issue of pending payments to the vendors as well as staff.

"We also issued more than five letters to resolve frequent labour strikes. However, despite repeated notices, there was literally no progress at the site during the last four-five months," it said.

As per the contract with Simplex, the expected progress from them in 30 months was 65 per cent. However, the contractor showed as little as 5.07 per cent progress in almost 25 months.

"MBZ-RCC was awarded a contract worth Rs 521.21 crore on April 12, 2018, for constructing 5.9 km route of the Line 2B corridor. The expected rate of progress from the contractor was 60 per cent in 30 months. However, they could only complete 4.48 per cent of work in more than 21 months," it said.

As far as Mandale depot is concerned, MMRDA had awarded the depot construction contract to MBZ-RCC for Rs 390.44 crore on January 19, 2018, at an expected progress of 50 per cent in 36 months. However, only 6.98 per cent work was done in almost 25 months.