Mumbai: In a shocking case, the Maharashtra government has ended up having to pay Rs 300 crore as interest to a contractor in addition to Rs 5.71 crore towards the original due, officials said. The government would have to pay all this to Khare & Tarkunde for completing a bridges project in 1998 which involved constructing a chain of bridges at a cost of Rs 226 crore.
The State government has run a protracted litigation and finally approached the Supreme Court over the matter, which however upheld the High Court order to pay the said amount to the contractor. As per officials, Khare & Tarkunde had in October 1997 acquired the work of constructing the bridges between Jam in Wardha district and Varora road in Chandrapur district.
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The contractor completed the work at a cost of Rs 226 crore in October 1998. However after the completion of the project period, the toll collection was stopped and the project transferred to the public department, which irked the contractor. To resolve the issue, Retired Chief Engineer R H Tadvi was appointed as the sole arbitrator in the case and he ordered to pay 5 crore 71 lakh rupees to the contractor on 4 March 2004 with interest compounded at 25 percent per month.
Against this order, an appeal was filed by the government in the district and sessions court, which on 15 December 2006 upheld the arbitration order but ruled that the percentage of interest be reduced from 25 to 18. A petition was filed in the High Court against this decision of the District and Sessions Court again by the government.
The High Court upheld the award to the contractor on February 18, 2021. The government filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court decision. After hearing this petition on December 1, 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the order of the High Court. It is learnt that on December 13, 2022, the state cabinet decided to pay the contractor Khare & Tarkunde Infrastructure Company Rs 5 crore 71 lakh including Rs 300 crore interest for the losses.
The government has decided to investigate the officials who imposed “oppressive” conditions in the tender and caused crores of rupees worth losses to the government.
