Srinagar, Mar 18: The J&K Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC) has decided to issue a fresh tender for inviting a response from the contractors for the construction of the much-hyped Jetty Bridge in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
The move comes after the construction work on this vital bridge is yet to be completed despite the passage of over two decades although the construction would have decongested the choked Baramulla town.
The construction work on this bridge was executed in 2002 and is yet to be completed.
The project cost of the bridge in the year 2002 was Rs 2 crore which has now escalated to around Rs 18 crore.
According to the officials, due to the cost escalation on the project, JKPCC suspended the work on the bridge for the past many years.
Deputy General Manager JKPCC Baramulla, Masood Ahmad Gangoo told Greater Kashmir that a new tender would be floated to seek a response from the contractors to start work on this bridge.
“We will issue a fresh tender and ask the contractors to participate in it so that the work on Jetty Bridge may start early,” he said.
Earlier, the JKPCC floated several tenders for the construction of this bridge but did not get any response from the contractors which halted the work on this bridge.
For the last 10 years, there has been no headway in the execution of the project which would bypass the heavy flow of traffic of Rafiabad and Kupwara areas of the town.
In the last 20 years, the executing agency has been able to erect only one pillar of the bridge.
Meanwhile, Gangoo said that they floated 10 to 12 tenders in the past for the entire project but received zero response.
“Now I have forwarded a proposal to the head office and suggested that if we can split the work and issue two or three separate tenders for sub-structure and super-structure so that we may get some response to the tenders,” he said.
Gangoo said that the committee convened a meeting on this and would forward the proposal to the government.
“By the time the government approves the proposal to split the work, the JKPCC head office has decided to issue a fresh tender for the entire project one more time,” he said.
Gangoo said that there were chances of getting responses to tenders if the work was divided into sub structure and super-structure.
“We are also seeking permission from the government to start the work on the jetty bridge on labour rates. If JKPCC is allowed to start the work then it will speed up and will be completed in a time-bound manner,” he said.
Jetty Bridge was earlier approved in languishing projects.
In September 2018, the J&K government established the J&K Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) with a mandate to raise loans for these projects.