On charges of misappropriation of funds and delay in construction of the four-lane Ejipura-Kendriya Sadan flyover, the Karnataka High Court Thursday directed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to lodge an FIR against M/S Simplex Infrastructures Ltd.
A division bench headed by chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi asked BBMP to take steps, including cancellation of contract, with the infrastructure company within a week.
“We find that the fourth respondent (Simplex Infrastructure) has been duly served. However, no one appeared on his behalf. We prima facie find that it is because of the fourth respondent that the project has been delayed and the construction of the flyover could not be completed…public money has been involved in the project and people at large have been put to inconvenience due to the delay in completion of the project,” the bench noted.
The court was hearing a petition filed by a senior citizen, Adinarayan Shetty, who resides in Koramangala. The petition states that the citizens are suffering due to the unfinished project.
The bench said BBMP should take steps to complete the project expeditiously in a time-bound manner and the steps taken in this regard should be placed before the court on March 15, the next date of hearing.
Last December, the residents of Koramangala protested against the inordinate delay in the construction of the flyover. In his letter to the BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta in the same period, BTM layout MLA Ramalimga Reddy stated that the contractor claimed to have the capacity to manufacture only 50 segments a month.
“Even at this rate of production, producing all the segments required will take another 14 months. The contractor’s production capacity has to be increased and monitored by BBMP. The contractor needs to be summoned to explain the reasons for the delays and give an action plan to speed up work. If the contractor is not capable of completing the project, it is suggested for a change of agency to carry out the balance work of the project immediately,” the letter read.