Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is preparing to call re-tenders for the 6,000 sq.ft multi-level parking lot in the Town Hall premises to ease the problem of parking in the heart of the city. Re-tenders will be called for 30 percent of the works that are left unfinished. 

The Town Hall multi-level parking facility can accommodate over 600 four-wheelers and over 1,000 two-wheelers. Hyderabad-based Chhabria Associates was given the contract worth Rs. 18.28 crore and the ground-breaking ceremony was performed on April 11, 2011. The project was to be completed by April 2012. 

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, MCC engineers said that of the Rs.18.28 crore budget, the MCC has already paid Rs. 12 crore to Chhabria Associates. Meantime, the contractor quietly moved back to Hyderabad leaving the project in a limbo. As the contractor firm had violated the deadlines and abandoned the project, it was blacklisted with the consent of the MCC Council. Questioning this, Chhabria Associates approached the Court and the Court has ruled in its favour, said officials. 

They said that the Corporation was not willing to handover the tender again to Chhabria Associates. “Over 30 percent of the works have to be completed and over Rs. 7 crore is required for the project to solve the water-logging problem in underground level of parking lot. We have to build a sump to collect the gushing rainwater inside the basement parking and pump the water out. Tenders have to be re-floated,” an officer told Star of Mysore. 

The roof-top of the multi-level parking will have an open air theatre and a RangaMantap and the work on this is almost complete. However, the work on the parking lot where cars will be parked is 80 percent complete but the work on the two-wheeler parking has come to a standstill with just pillars standing and no support walls. 

“Our lawyer has told us that despite legal hurdles, the MCC can go ahead with additional works for the delayed project to see the light of the day,” he said and added that the parking facility has been checked by experts from Karnataka Engineering Research Station (KERS) and also inspected and certified by renowned structural engineer and former Principal of SJCE Dr. Syed Shakeeb-ur-Rehman. 

As per a report submitted by MCC Executive Engineer Nagaraj to Superintendent Engineer BiligiriRangaswamy, Rs. 5 crore is needed for civil works and Rs. 2 crore is needed for electrical works. “The re-tendering process will begin soon with the approval of the Council,” the officer added.