Officials directed to finish town hall work in 4 months

District in-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai has directed officials to complete the renovation of Town Hall, within four months, by inviting short tenders towards the pending works and has warned of stern action against the erring officials, if the directions are not followed.

He was chairing a review meeting of Mangalore City Corporation development works in MCC on Friday. Expressing his displeasure over the discrepancy of duties by the former MCC Commissioner, he lamented that the negligence by the authorities concerned, despite his orders, has pained him.

 Regarding the paralysed condition of the renovation work of the Town Hall, Rai said that there may be some conspiracy involved in this. 

However, no one can predict such activities in politics. But, the development work halted mainly because of the negligence of the officials. Those who do not carry out the directions in this connection, need not stay in Mangalore City Corporation.

Leader of opposition in MCC council, Sudheer Shetty alleged that the negligence of the officials has pushed the Town Hall into a pitiable condition. The Nirmithi Kendra has refused carrying out  the work, quoting the reason of non-availability of technical hands, he said. Replying to the comments, Rai said that this was not the first work handed over to Nirmithi Kendra in the district.  

MCC Superintending Engineer said that out of 255 development works in the Fist phase, worth Rs 100 crore, 251 have been completed and three are in progress. One work has been cancelled due to technical limitations.

Of the 110 road development works in the second phase, 82 have been carried out, nine are in progress and 15 are in tender process. The drain works are pending as no contractors are ready to claim the tenders.

The minister suggested conducting a special meeting in this regard and to submit fresh proposals. The third phase includes 40 packages out of which 17 have been distributed through tenders.  Rai told to sped the works up and added that if necessary, the works should be split and given to different contractors, instead of packages. He felt for a need to fasten the MCC administrative mechanism in this regard and told officials to work on priority.

Hurdles cleared

Ramanath Rai categorically stated that the legal hurdles to the construction of Ambedkar Bhavan has been cleared and Rai himself has convinced the Chief Minister and the land has been sanctioned.

MUDA Commissioner M Nazir said the development market in Urwa store  to be taken up at a budget of Rs 12 crore awaits administrative sanction and the detailed project report of Urwa market, to be taken up at a cost of Rs 24 crore is ready and has been sent to the Chief Engineer.

MCC Executive Engineer Dharmaraj said towards making Bejai market a model one, development modules need to be drawn and finalised. However, the work will be completed by August 1. While, the Jeppu market development will be complete within a month. 

Ramanath Rai told the officials to accelerate works regarding the proposed service bus stand in Pumpwell. The bus terminal should be a state-of-the-art construction, he added. He further felt that focus needs to be laid on ring road, truck terminals, flyover, UGD connections and market network to draw a comprehensive  plan under ADB second phase project and suggested conducting a preparatory meet by the MCC, Zilla Panchayat and MUDA in this regard and Mangaluru is the fastest developing city in the state next to Bengaluru.

MLA’s B A Mohiyuddin Bava, Ivan D’Souza, MCC Mayor Jacinta Vijay Alfred, Deputy Mayor Purushottam Chitrapur and Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim were present.