Gurgaon: In a stern move against alleged negligence and delays, the MCG has terminated the contracts of four contractors assigned to five critical civic infrastructure works across the city. The contractors have also been blacklisted for two years, barring them from undertaking any future projects with the civic body.Of the four contractors whose agreements have been scrapped, three had not even begun the assigned work. The remaining two contractors had completed barely 5% of the work, a level of progress officials described as “unacceptable.” The civic body is now expected to re-tender the projects or assign them to new agencies to ensure the work is completed without further delay.The terminated contracts covered essential urban maintenance tasks including desilting of stormwater drains and sewer lines, laying of new water pipelines, hiring of jetting machines, and replacement of damaged manholes, slabs, covers, and sewer lines in several parts of the city. According to MCG officials, the decision was taken after the contractors failed to execute the projects despite being awarded the work months earlier. An internal review revealed a glaring lack of progress on the ground.The stalled works are particularly critical ahead of the monsoon season, when blocked stormwater drains and damaged sewer infrastructure can trigger severe waterlogging and a sanitation crisis in the city.An MCG official indicated the action was necessary to send a clear message to contractors that non-performance will not be tolerated. “We have debarred these companies for a period of two years besides terminating their contracts. No payments have been made to the contractors for the work assigned,” said MCG executive engineer Sandeep Kumar.The works included cleaning and desilting of sewer line by bucket machine in Jacobpura, Adarsh Nagar and Gopal Nagar; cleaning and desilting of storm water drain in ward no. 27; providing and laying water supply pipeline and restoration of road with interlocking tiles from Jharsa Chowk to HVPNL Colony; cleaning and desilting of storm water drain in ward no. 31 and hiring of jetting machine and replacement of damaged manhole, slab, cover, damaged lines in ward no 27.The residents said that while terminating the contractors and debarring them is a welcome step, MCG will also have to ensure that these contractors don’t fetch contracts again for the future projects.“When I was the RWA president between 2019 and 2021, a road was made in my sector bypassing the norms. I demanded a vigilance inquiry and nine samples of the road constructed by the contractor failed the test, following which he was debarred. However, the contractor continued working on other MCG projects, producing poor quality projects. These contractors have a syndicate. So, while MCG has blacklisted them for two years, they should ensure that these contractors don’t get any other project in other divisions,” said Udaybir Yadav, ex-RWA president of Sector 10A.
