Centre stops NH55 repairs - Ministry angry with slow work on main highway to hills

The unrepaired portion of NH55 at Tindharia. The spot is around 30km from Siliguri.
The tracks skirting the caved-in highway are for toy trains, which don’t run on
this route now. Picture by Suman Tamang

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Feb. 17: The Union ministry for road transport and highways has told the state PWD to stop repairs on NH55, peeved by the delay in mending two landslide-ravaged spots on the main highway connecting the Darjeeling hills to the rest of Bengal.

The ministry, headed by Nitin Gadkari, has asked the PWD to "foreclose" work on the NH55 - more famous as the Hill Cart Road - which means the private contractor employed in repairing the two landslide damaged spots would have to stop work, and the Centre would call fresh tenders for the rest of the repairs to be done.

The minister, in a letter to Darjeeling's BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia, wrote: "I got the matter examined and would like to inform you that the estimates for the restoration of the work was sanctioned in the year 2013 but there was no significant progress at site even after a lapse of about one and half years. Subsequently, the scope of work was increased due to increase in damage during monsoon and the revised estimate for the same was submitted by State PWD."

The central minister added: "In view of the above, ministry in consultation with State PWD decided to foreclose the ongoing works and award the balance work on EPC mode... so that work could be completed on time."

EPC stands for engineering, procurement and construction. Under this mode, the contractor will have to complete the project within an agreed amount and time. "Right now, the work was being done on Bill of Quantity (BoQ) mode, in which separate tasks have separate estimates. Also under the BoQ model, a revision of estimates can be done, depending on the escalation of costs and if the scope of work for the contractor is increased," said an official of the state PWD department.

Sources in the state PWD said the tender for the repairs had been bagged by Bharat Vanijya Eastern Pvt Ltd for Rs 50 crore in 2013. "A notice has been issued to the firm. There are certain procedures to be completed for foreclosure. The work will soon be foreclosed," said the official.

A state government official had said earlier the they had estimated Rs 57 crore would be needed to repair the NH55 stretches at Tindharia and Paglajhora. But the revised estimate the state PWD sent to the Union ministry recently was more than double the initial cost, Gadkari's letter noted.

The landslips

On June 16, 2010, a 500-metre section of NH55 was washed away in a landslide at Paglajhora, which is about 30km from Darjeeling. This meant that right from 2010 onwards, vehicles have been taking the Rohini Road, Mirik Road and Mungpoo route - the last two take more time than the NH55 route - to reach Darjeeling.

There is no other national highway connecting Siliguri or the rest of Bengal to Darjeeling.

Before the Paglajhora stretch could be mended, two landslides - in September 2011 and July 2012 - washed away another section of NH55 at Tindharia, which is 10km from Paglajhora.

As a result of the three landslides, the Darjeeling Himalayan railway also stopped toy train rides popular with tourists on this route. The full ride is yet to start.

The repairs

On June 18, 2014, the state PWD said road repairs at Paglajhora were over and it will be reopened for light vehicles in 10 days. That has not yet happened as the metal topping for the road at Paglajhora has not been done.

At Tindharia, which is about 30km from Siliguri and about 40km from Darjeeling, repair work is yet to start.

The road at Paglajhora is yet to be opened officially for use. Small vehicles do travel up to a point in Paglajhora, then make a detour through a local road, which is steep, unsafe and unsuitable for heavy vehicles.

An official of the Calcutta-based Bharat Vanijya Eastern denied the charge that the company had delayed repairs.

Pradip Kumar Bhadra, the managing director of the company, confirmed they had received a letter from the state PWD, National Highway division, regarding the "foreclosure" of work.

"We have received the letter recently. There were no problems as far as we are concerned. We were awarded the work in June 2013. After investigation and exploration, we took up the actual work in December 2013. As far as we are concerned, there were no delays. Work on national highways is done under the supervision of the state PWD, National Highways division. That is all we have to say," Bhadra said.

The Union ministry of road transport and highways had asked a team comprising of members from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) for a field visit to the sites and to submit their suggestions in 2013.

Gadkari mentioned in his letter that his ministry has started the process for fresh tenders. The ministry "is in the process of getting the modified proposal prepared for awarding the work in EPC mode", the letter said. "The consultant already engaged for improvement work on NH-55 has been directed to expedite the preparation of modified proposals so that work of restoration could be awarded as early as possible."