SHAJ accused for favouring company in road construction project at Shibu Soren’s native village

The ambitious road construction project at the native village of Dishom Guru Shibu Soren has landed in controversy as the State Highways Authority Jharkhand (SHAJ) has been accused of awarding work orders to a joint venture company in a dubious manner.

The project worth Rs 124.92 Crore was awarded to the joint venture company Ganga Sri Ram construction. This joint venture is controlled by one Guru Pandey who is closely connected to the present government.

The contract was awarded in 2021 for the purpose of strengthening and reconstructing of the road on NH 23 connecting Barlanga-Nemra-Pergul Kashmar-Kharachter up to the West Bengal border. The total length of the road is 27.608 km which is a double-lane road. Nemra in Ramgarh district is the native village of JMM chief Shibu Soren.

The joint venture is accused to have surpassed facts related to bidding capacity and submitted false documents. Besides, some competing companies were dropped from the tender process on technical grounds.

Shiv Shankar Sharma who filed two PILs against Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his brother Basant Soren besides their close associates and bureaucrats has accused SHAJ of wrongdoings. He has filed a complaint to road construction department secretary Sunil Kumar.

He blamed SHAJ chairperson Vijay Gupta, member (technical) O. P. Yadav and executive engineer Sanjay Kumar for committing anomalies in awarding this contract. He claimed that Vijay Gupta is not technically qualified for this post.

“It is an open secret that the tender was awarded to this joint venture company under the instruction of someone from the CM secretariat. Let the truth come out about how bidding claims of bonafide companies were rejected on technical grounds. Dummy companies were allowed in the bidding process so that this joint venture gets the contract. Sri Ram Construction has been under the scanner for suppression of fact as a participant in a tender process in the Bhagalpur district. This joint venture furnished false paper regarding its bidding capacity,” said Shiv Shankar Sharma.

He alleged that the department refused to give him full and complete information regarding this tender process when he tried to get these through the Right to Information.

Shiv Shankar Sharma said that SHAJ claimed that only three companies M/s Ganga Construction, M/s M and S Company and Rajbir Construction Pvt Ltd participated in the bid.

“But the fact is that three other companies namely Classic Engicon Pvt Ltd, Dineshchandra R. Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd and UMSL Limited had applied for the tender. SHAJ dropped the first two companies from the bidding process on the ground of the non-submission of the tender fee. But this is untrue because I have inquired and found that both companies had submitted tender fees and other necessary documents. The other two companies which were allowed to participate in the tender are nothing but dummy companies,” he said.

On being contacted by SHAJ chairperson Vijay Gupta he said that he may not be the right person to comment on this matter.