GCA members and other contractors will now fill the tenders of construction projects from April 1
BILKULONLINE
Ahmedabad, March 17: Construction contracts mounting to as big a figure as Rs 10,000 crores will be once again see the light of day with an end of the agitation of the protesting contractors of Gujarat.
This was informed by Arvind Patel, President of the Gujarat Contractors Association (GCA) at a press meet on Wednesday in Ahmedabad.
Giving full credit to the Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel and Road & Trasnport Minister of Gujarat Purnesh Modi and BJP Gujarat president C R Patil, the GCA president said “they were considerate to our ongoing demands finally and all our major demands have been accepted by the government. Soon, it will be reflected through government orders”.
The GCA with a registered 2000 membership dominates an organized force of work to give the projects its implemented form.
Ar vind Patel added that “we did not want to be an obstacle to the speed and progress picture of Gujarat, but, our most pertinent demand from the government was escalation of tender price of our projects in hand. The shoot up in the price of raw materials used by the construction industry due to covid 19 and its consequences was the reason.”
Therefore, the GCA was in no mood to carry out Gujarat government’s pending projects. Giving it a hard blow to the state government for its non-coperative and unsupportive approach, GCA was observing a blanket ban to the work at all pending projects at government sites. Also, they were not applying for new tenders.
The demands were make in the wake of increased construction costs, the Gujarat Contractors Association (GCA) had thus moved a representation seeking that the government pay revised construction charges. GCA members have cited that the increase in prices of steel, cement, tar, sand, gravel and bricks in addition to costlier transportation and increased labour wages have led to an increase of at least 30 to 40 percent in the cost of construction.
According to GCA President Arvind Patel Gujarat government has agreed on the following demands;
- Price escalation on projects (above 12 months period) will be allowed with a maximum ceiling of 5%
- Extension to be allowed to the projects which were less than 12 months
- Standard Bidding document (SBD) will take care of the above approvals in all its forthcoming tenders starting from April 1 2022.
- Tenders’ provisional cost will be considered without GST
- Schedule of Rates (SOR) will be updated and accepted as per the revised rates.
Kishore Viramgama, vice-president of the association explains that “due to Covid 19 , work had stopped on government projects and deadlines were extended.”
According to GCA, in addition to the PMAY projects worth Rs 15,000 crore that are under way in Gujarat, there are ongoing projects worth Rs 25,000 crore of other departments.
GCA is hopeful that their other pending demands will also be taken care of by the Gujarat Government including an immediate procurement of tar in order to complete the ongoing projects.