Dibrugarh, May 28: The Assam gas cracker project is all set to miss its completion deadline with only around 15 per cent of the work completed in 38 of the stipulated 60 months.

Senior officials of the Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL), which is promoting the project, today agreed that the facility would suffer a time overrun. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone of the Rs 5,460-crore project — part of the historic Assam Accord — at Lepetkata, 11km from this Upper Assam town, on April 9, 2007.

BCPL managing director J.K. Singh Teotia, speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, put the overall progress of the project at 16 per cent plus.

“Going by the progress made so far, there will be some delay in the commissioning of the project,” Teotia said. He, however, refused to specify how many extra months would be needed to complete the project. “We cannot be very specific at this juncture, but as the project goes on, we hope to narrow the gap between the additional time and the actual timeframe,” the managing director said.

Teotia added that so far contracts to the tune of Rs 3,200 crore had been allotted and the pace of work would soon pick up. The gas cracker is among the 18 national projects being directly monitored by the Prime Minister’s office.

The BCPL managing director cited labour shortage and inclement weather as the major reason for the delay.

However, company sources said the delay was because of a “lax” attitude of a section of contractors from outside the state that had been trying to project law and order as a major obstacle.

A highly placed source said some contractors and firms from outside the state that had bagged the lion’s share of the contracts and supply orders so far, had not been able to meet their deadlines owing to this “lax” attitude. Since they now face penalties because of the delay in completion of their tasks, they are raising an unnecessary hue and cry over labour, law and order and inclement weather.

When a project is designed for implementation in the Northeast, the issue of weather is always considered and a timeframe fixed accordingly. Therefore, citing weather as the reason is totally not acceptable, the source added.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi will visit the project site tomorrow to take stock of the progress.