BBMP to float a fresh tender to complete Ejipura-Kendriya Sadan flyover

The Karnataka government has terminated the contract awarded to Simplex Infrastructure Limited for the construction of a 2.5-km flyover between Ejipura and Kendriya Sadan junction in Koramangala.

The Karnataka government has terminated the contract awarded to Simplex Infrastructure Limited for the construction of a 2.5-km flyover between Ejipura and Kendriya Sadan junction in Koramangala. The development came Weeks after being pulled by the High Court of Karnataka. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)will float a fresh tender to complete the pending civil work.

Ejipura-Kendriya Sadan flyover (Twitter/Gaurav Gupta @BBMPCOMM)

The 4-lane flyover was slow, to begin with, the Kolkata-based construction firm Simplex Infrastructure Limited missed multiple deadlines despite several warnings and even served two notices. With the construction taken up in May 2017 and the 30-month deadline ending in November 2019, so far only 42.83% of the ₹204-crore project had been completed. Delays were alleged to be caused by the transfer of defence and private land for public use, and clearance to cut 40 full-grown trees.

The Urban Development Department, in an order earlier this month, directed the infrastructure company to forfeit the security deposit of ₹10.16 crore.

“Slow and tardy construction has wreaked havoc around the area with work having come to halt, the space between the columns has turned into a garbage dump with shrunk roads, abandoned excavations and traffic bottleneck on the entire stretch,” say residents of Koramangala, who were never consulted about the project. The citizens of BTM and Koramangala held a protest last year against the felling of more than 60 trees for the much-delayed project.

Following this, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta had written to the UDD to cancel the tender, citing various reasons including funds being diverted by the company for other projects. In Jul 2021, BBMP made an escrow account to prevent the diversion and to ensure the direct flow of payments to the labourers and sub-contractors, involved in the day-to-day execution of the work. However, there has not been any progress. According to senior officials, up to September 2021, it had cleared bills amounting to ₹75 crores.

For more than a year, work on the flyover had come to a standstill, having completed only 191 pre-cast segments out of the proposed 762. With the cancellation of the tender, BBMP engineers will undertake a joint measuring and evaluation exercise of the existing and ongoing work with the project consultant and Simplex. The whole process is likely to take another month.