Delhi Metro seeks ban on Gammon

Gammon India Ltd. | Engineering - Construction | Construction & Infrastructure | BSE: 509550 | NSE: GAMMONIND

29 Jul 2009 Evaluate

Delhi Metro, the country’s most ambitious infrastructure project, has served Mumbai-based construction giant Gammon India a show-cause notice, asking why it should not be banned for two years and debarred from bidding for contracts under phase IV of the project.

The move, announced at a press conference in the capital, comes a little over a month after an accident killed six workers at a metro construction site on July 12. The accident, the latest in a series over the past year, raised public outrage and prompted Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s widely respected chief E Sreedharan to submit his resignation, which the state government declined to accept in the interests of completing the project in time for the Commonwealth Games next year.

DMRC has also blacklisted Arch Consultants, design consultants to the project, for five years, and structural consultants Tondon Consultants for two years. Both have also been barred from all existing contracts in which they were involved.

Gammon is working on five major projects of the metro worth Rs 300 crore, of which about 70 per cent of the work has been completed. The penalty, which could run to a couple of crores, will be decided by the corporation after it receives a reply to its show cause notice.

DMRC’s move could have an adverse impact on the construction giant which has been in the eye of the storm on several other projects. The company was blamed by a committee for the collapse of the flyover in Hyderabad in 2007 and directed to pay penalty.crack crack