Municipality charges construction company Rs. 32,000 daily for delays

By Our Correspondent,Syangja, May 16: Kirateshwor Construction and Drilling Company Private Limited of Sukedhara in Kathmandu has to pay a penalty of Rs. 32,492 daily to Arjun Chaupari Rural Municipality on a daily basis.

After the construction company failed to build the administrative building of the rural municipality in time, the rural municipality fined the construction company as per the decision of the municipality's executive meeting on April 26 and Rules 121 of Public Procurement Regulations 2064, which came into effect from Monday (May 15, 2023).

The construction company did not complete the construction of the building of the rural municipality even for an additional 15 months. Initially, the rural municipality and the construction company signed an agreement on December 30, 2020 to complete the construction within 15 months of signing the agreement.

Chief Administrative Officer of the Arjun Chaupari Rural Municipality Ujwal Bahadur Basnet said that a fine of 0.05 per cent of the total cost of construction of the administrative building of Rs 74.01 million has been charged to the construction company.

Stating that it will take another 15 days to complete all the construction work, Engineer Sandeep Bogati said that there would be a fine until the building is handed over.

The construction company, which adjusted the price and took an additional payment of Rs. 3.2 million, has not been able to complete the construction in another 15 months.

The building of the rural municipality was built on 30 ropanis of land leased from the government for 30 years.

Surendra Chapagain, the representative of the construction company, said that the construction of the building has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said that the fine would be paid in accordance with the decision of the executive meeting of the rural municipality and the Building Construction Act.

Delay in building construction of Phedikhola Rural Municipality too Similarly, Kirateshwor Construction and Drilling Company Private Limited got the responsibility of the construction of a building in Phedikhola Rural Municipality and the work has been delayed here as well.

The construction company, which started work in March 2021 with the intention of completing the work in two years, has completed only 60 per cent of the work even after passage of three additional months.

The company was awarded a five-storied building with lift at a cost of Rs. 78.6 million.