Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday slapped a contempt notice on the MD of the company executing road widening work on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch of NH-33 and also pulled up National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for allowing the project to be delayed inordinately.
A division bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice B.B. Mangalmurti, while hearing a PIL on the tardy pace of construction work, asked Ranchi Expressways MD K.S. Rao to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for violating its orders.
In an earlier hearing, the court asked Rao _ he was presenting court on Tuesday _ to furnish details of his and his company's assets. But, the company failed to do so.
The court, which is monitoring the Rs 1,600-crore project that has been dragging on for the last six and a half years, also asked Special Fraud Investigation Organisation under the Centre to inquire into the affairs of Ranchi Expressways and submit a preliminary report.
The bench observed that the gesture of the NHAI seemed to be "step-motherly" towards Jharkhand. "How long will NHAI wait before it will take action against the concessionaire?" the bench said.
"An expert agency of the country dealing with road construction has been sitting over the project and allowing the contractor to do as it pleases. NHAI should take disciplinary and coercive measures against the contractor for the delay in the construction work," the court observed.
Criticising Canara Bank that has loaned funds to Ranchi Expressways, the bench said the bank had released money to the contractor in advance and was also earning interest. "But it has not bothered to check want that money has been spent on," the court said.
As directed earlier, the state government also filed an affidavit and revealed that 600 people from Seraikela, and approximately 500 people of the capital, had died in accidents that occurred on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch of NH-33 between January 2011 to January 2017.
The case will again be heard on November 27.
