Government cancels Maytas' airport contract

The company failed to meet our expectations: Suresh Kumar

A decision to this effect was taken at the State Cabinet meeting, which also decided to call for fresh tenders to execute the project.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Minister Suresh Kumar said that Maytas had failed to meet the expectations of the government during the last six months.

He pointed out that government had provided sufficient time for the company to prove that it had the capability to execute the projects.

Last year, the government had chosen Maytas, an entity promoted by the Ramalinga Raju family, to execute the greenfield projects at Gulbarga and Shimoga, estimated to cost Rs 220 crore.

Suresh Kumar said following the scam involving Satyam, the government on January 29 had set up a high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary to ascertain whether the agreement with Maytas needed to be relooked.

To a show cause notice by the panel, the firm in its reply on February 10 said there was no mismanagement, and sought two to three months to commence work on the projects.

“However, there had been progress since then, and the Cabinet today decided to terminate the agreement,” he said.

He said the government had decided to appoint Bangalore-based Infrastructure Development Corporation of Karnataka (IDCK) as project consultants for the two airports and call for fresh bidders.

The cabinet also approved Rs 78 crore allocation for the two airports, Suresh Kumar said.
Power from waste

The meeting approved the awarding of a solid waste management and power generation projects to a private firm, on 25 acres of land on the outskirts of Bangalore.
Organic Wastes India Ltd will put up a land fill and power plant (to generate 7.5 MW) using garbage collected from Bangalore at Biddarahalli hobli.

The firm will also pay Rs 27 per tonne of garbage collected - totalling to about Rs 98.55 lakh per annum to the BBMP. He said more such units would be set up in a phased manner.

The Cabinet also approved six laning of the six km stretch between Sunkadakatte junction and NICE Road in Bangalore at a cost of  Rs 40 crore. The present two-lane stretch was not able to sustain the heavy traffic density, he said.