WB road project suffers hiccups in last lap

IMPHAL, February 6: The routine ban on government bill encashment and the numerous bandhs the state gets to see is gaining more notoriety. If things are not set right, even the prestigious World Bank sponsored project currently being undertaken in the state may end on a sour note even as it is on its final lap. According to a reliable source, the project consultant, TYPSA Company from Spain, have served an ultimatum to the Government that it would pull out by February 12 if funds due to it were not released by then. According to the understanding under which the project is being taken up, the State government is to bear the implementation cost of Rs 7 crore at a time, which also the World Bank would reimburse every three months. According to the source, the amount has also been earmarked in the state budget. However, since July last, the government has stopped the release of the agreed amount. Towards the end of December, the state government released a sum of Rs 91 lakhs towards the foreign exchange component of the project, but this too could not be encashed because of a ban by the RBI on government bills. The agreement had also stipulated January 2001 as the conclusion of the current survey project, but because of the numerous bandhs the state saw during the year, the date has now been pushed to February 2001. It is however learnt that the survey is near complete except for some loose ends here and there to be tied up. Once this is completed, a national tender would be floated for the construction work of 250 km of new road and upgradation of 750 km of existing ones. Initially it was planned to float a global tender but on the insistence of the state Government to involve local contractors in the work, a national tender for the work at hand was agreed upon, the source said. The state government has in the meantime requested the TYPSA Company team leader now in Manipur, Randal Raider, for a little more time to release the fund, citing financial difficulties, the source said. It may be recalled the World Bank road project in the Northeast touches three states, namely Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram.