Home truths for Laloo: Mafia cloud over projects

‘‘We have to assure them of their safety and convey that the volume of work is so large that they stand to benefit immensely even after meeting the local demands,’’ a senior official said.

The East Central Railway, with its headquarters at Hajipur, floated nine tenders in the past few months. But three of the tenders did not elicit even a single bid, while the others got just one offer each, said sources.

The Chief Administrative Officer (Construction) of East Central Railway Rajeev Bhargav confirmed that lack of interest in tenders was causing problems.

Besides, the sources said, the financial and technical capability of the local contractors who have bid for the jobs is far from satisfactory.

‘‘Even single bids do not help since it is difficult to take decisions in such a scenario. We must have competitive bidding,’’ the official said.

According to sources, contractors are wary of the local mafia’s stranglehold. ‘‘It is unfortunate and unprecedented. Such a situation has not arisen even in projects in J-K or the North-East,’’ the official added.

The East Central Railway had to complete earthwork and construction of a number of major and minor bridges in order to wrap up construction of 1,745 km of railway lines within the next few years.

‘‘To meet the targets, we have to complete construction of 338 major bridges and 1,689 minor bridges within the next two to three years. But we have not yet been able to invite bids for bulk of the jobs,’’ sources said.

Laloo had wanted work on most of these projects to at least start—if not be completed—before the elections. The Minister has also asked the Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) and the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), which are executing some major projects in the state, to expedite work.

On July 23, Laloo flagged off work on the wheel factory in Chapra after a RITES survey. IRCON, which is building 38 over-bridges in the state, has already completed preliminary work—actual construction has also begun.

Renovation of many railway stations in the state, including Patna, is also on the anvil. RVNL had been asked to hasten work on the Munghyr-Ganga bridge and the Patna-Ganga bridge, too.