RDA forced to pay millions in delay payments
An RDA official said that even though the premises where six buildings of the official residences of the Slave Island Police are needed for the project, they have not yet been handed over. Consequently, construction of this project has slowed down since November last year and payments have to be paid for the delay caused.
The Road Development Authority ( RDA) has to pay an additional sum of Rs 47 million as delay payments to the contractor, Access Engineering Private Ltd. This is because the Police Department has not handed over buildings belonging to the Slave Island Police Station, and delays in the construction of the flyovers connecting Baladaksha Mawatha and Chiththampalam A Gardiner Mawatha over the railway tracks and the Beira Lake, the Sunday Times learns.
An RDA top official said that even though the premises where six buildings of the official residences of the Slave Island Police are needed for the project, they have not yet been handed over. Consequently, construction of this project has slowed down since November last year and payments have to be paid for the delay caused.
Project Director, Eng Nalinda Ratnayake, said that the contractor’s firm has requested that a sum of Rs 47 million be paid at present, adding that if further delays occur the delay payments will increase.
General Manager of Access Engineering, Kosala Wickremasinghe confirmed to the Sunday Times that a payment of Rs 47 million has to be made by the RDA due to this delay.
Official residences of 42 police officers are located within the six buildings in question. The RDA has purchased 22 housing units from the Urban Development Authority ( UDA) at the Metro Scheme, Slave Island, for 22 of these police officers and handed over to them, at a cost of Rs 344 million. That was on September 23 last year. Eight of the police officers among the remaining 20 have left their houses, and the other 12 are refusing to leave their official residences citing political connections, the RDA official said.
Many government-owned buildings and lands around Slave Island have been acquired by the UDA for mixed development projects.
The severe traffic congestion which prevails in Slave Island during peak hours spreads up to Lipton Circus, and a study carried out by the Moratuwa University has pointed out that vehicle operation costs due to this, amount to Rs 750 million per day.
As a solution to this, two flyovers in Slave Island along Justice Akbar Mawatha and Uttarananda Mawatha over railway tracks ( Package 1) and flyover connecting Baladaksha Mawatha and Chiththampalam A Gardiner Mawatha over railway track and Beira Lake ( Package 2) projects were launched last year.
The 380m long flyover (Package 2) will cost Rs 2.735 billion. It started on June 26, 2021 and should have been completed on June 26 this year. Due to the delay, only 30- 35% of the project has been completed so far. The project of two flyovers (Package 1) will cost Rs 5. 278 billion and the total project cost will be borne by the Government.
“The Kompanna Veediya Railway Gate is closed 137 times a day. This means that 137 trains travel through the Railway Station daily. The traffic congestion that is created due to this is extremely serious. Therefore, these projects have to be completed soon. We informed the Police Department and the IGP from February of last year that six buildings which contain Police flats on this street have to be removed on behalf of this project ( Package 2),” the Project Director said.
He said that in addition to massive costs of the project, payments have to be made as a result of this delay, and the severe traffic congestion that prevails in this area means that due to the vehicle operation cost there is an enormous amount of money being wasted.
According to the RDA, when the first 22 houses were handed over by the Police Department, the Police Department together with the RDA and the UDA had signed a tripartite Memorandum o f Understanding ( MoU). According to the agreement, the remaining 20 houses will be provided to the Slave Island Police in 2023.
Howeve r, Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police, Nihal Talduwa said that the Slave Island Police has not signed such an MoU. He said that, although some amendments were made to the tripartite MoU and sent to the UDA, “the UDA had not sent back to us the final agreement with amendments incorporated.”
He also said that without providing alternate houses for police officers living in those houses, it is difficult to remove them at once.
“Actually, if houses are provided, we can get the officers to move out. But we do not have any other housing. We have informed the UDA about this on many occasions. The IGP has asked the relevant police officers to leave. Those officers have appealed. There is a manner according to the Establishment Code, to remove them from their residence. All of this will take time,” he said.
He added that since the Slave Island Police is located at a nerve point in Colombo, officers have to be provided with housing facilities at nearby places so that they can be called for in an emergency.