Pay Rs 109 crore, government asks contractors

The state government has ordered that criminal offences be registered against two Andhra Pradesh-based contractors and an official for allegedly using substandard materials to construct the Temghar Dam in Pune district’s Mulshi Tehsil. The amount required to repair the dam is a staggering Rs 109 crore, which will be recovered from the contractors. If they fail to pay up, the state will seize their properties.

Located in Sahyadri range, the dam was found to be leaking in several places on August 5, which frightened Pune locals as the project provides drinking water to the city.

Minister for water resources Girish Mahajan had visited the project and reviewed the situation. “The scene was horrible. The dam was leaking in several places and I was scared myself. Its natural that the people of Pune would be been tensed given their memories of the Kamshet dam, which broke a few decades ago,” said Mr Mahajan. “I held a review meeting and ordered a probe into the construction. The report of a committee headed by the division engineer of the water resources department was submitted to the Water Resource Regulatory Board on June 30. The board has accepted the recommendations of the committee and, on Thursday, we decided to take criminal action against the contractor and the officers responsible,” he added.

The contractors — Srinivasa Construction and Progressive Construction — were given the job of constructing a dam worth Rs 44.06 crore on March 18, 1997. The term of completion was Nov 17, 2000, but it was completed in 2012 and they were charged a fine of Rs 44 lakh per day for a period of 10 days.