The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to complain to the police against Simplex Infrastructure Ltd. for misappropriation of public money in not completing a 2.5-km-long flyover between Ejipura Main Road and Kendriya Sadan at Koramangala.
The court also directed the State Government to accord permission to the BBMP, which has sought the Government’s approval to cancel the contract with the company.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the interim order while hearing a PIL petition filed by 70-year old Adinarayan Shetty, a resident of Koramangala.
The Bench observed that prima facie it is because of the company that the delay had been caused in completion of the flyover and a huge amount of public money was involved in the project. The delay has also put people at large into serious inconvenience, the Bench said while noticing from the record that the company had not even responded to the court’s notice served last year.
During the hearing, the BBMP counsel told the Bench that it had written to the company to complete the flyover during the extended period granted but it had neither commenced work nor responded to the notice indicating that the contract would be terminated if the work was not completed as per the contract.
The petitioner had pointed out that the tender was floated for the project in 2014 and the contract awarded in May 2017 in favour of the company to construct the flyover at a cost of ₹203 crore. The construction was supposed to be completed in November 2019. The company failed to complete work even after the BBMP gave an extension till December 2020 after imposing a penalty for the delay.
