Kalighat skywalk: Kolkata Municipal Corporation serves 2-month ultimatum – Times of India

KOLKATA: Under pressure to wind up the construction of Kalighat skywalk project, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has served a two-month “ultimatum” to the private firm engaged in the construction. If the contractor fails to speed up the construction process, the civic body may need to find an alternative agency.
After struggling with preliminary hassles, KMC kicked off the much-coveted project in October last year. The contractor was given an April 2023 deadline for the project. Given an initial delay, the project may get delayed by six-seven months, conceded a KMC official.
However, after sensing that the project was way behind its schedule, the KMC brass has held a meeting and decided to serve a two-month ultimatum before searching for another agency to wrap up the work in time. “We have served an ultimatum to the private firm, asking it to speed up the construction process. We will take stock of the situation and assess the progress. If we don’t see visible progress, we may be compelled to sever our ties with the existing firm and search for an alternative,” said a KMC official.
According to a civic official, before handing over the site for construction of the skywalk, several essential services departments had conducted preliminary surveys of underground utilities to make the piling work easier for the construction firm.
However, after the passage of six months, the civic officials associated with the project failed to see any significant progress and alerted the firm a couple of times in the past couple of months.
“Our patience is running out and we will wait for another two months to see if things are moving in the right direction before getting tough with the firm engaged in the construction,” said a KMC official.
Sources in the KMC said the contractor had conveyed its inability to speed up its piling work because of the untraced underground utilities. “The construction firm officials said they needed to tread with caution as they were trying to locate the underground utilities before speeding up piling work,” said a civic official.
However, the civic brass expressed its dissatisfaction and cautioned the contractor to take the work seriously to meet the deadline.
“We are ready to cooperate with the firm but not beyond a point. We need to wrap up the project in time. There has already been a delay,” said Debasis Kumar, mayor-in-council me-mber overseeing the project.
The completion of the construction in time is also necessary to get back the hawkers who were shifted to Jatin Das Park to facilitate the construction of the skywalk.