Visit Mhaismal to enjoy adventure tourism!

Rafique Aziz

Aurangabad, Sept 22:

If you think Aurangabad does not offer adventure tourism then you could be proved wrong. Just visit Mhaismal hill station and you will experience it. The trauma or stress you suffer while crossing a distance of 11 km (from Khuldabad to Mhaismal) in a car is no less than an adventure for visitors, these days.

The 11-km long road is full of deep potholes, braving tar road patch of 2 km. The journey is painful from the Khuldabad T-point, where the vehicles from Aurangabad turns towards the right, to proceed for Mhaismal. The uneven surface road welcomes you and the trauma begins after crossing the white-coloured heritage gate, ahead of Khuldabad Guest House. The visitors are forced to drive the cars at low speed. The negotiations with potholes while passing through turns in the ghat

are stressful. The car occupants get exhausted and tired as if they are sitting in the vehicle for the past 11 hours.

Performance of contractor on radar!!

The PWD deputy engineer (sub-division Khuldabad) Dilip Kolte said, " The administrative approval to the 11 km road work was Rs 40.74 cr, but the technical approval was given to Rs 36 cr. The two-years contract valuing Rs 36 crore to develop the 11-km long road was awarded to Nashik-based ATR Infra Projects in July 2018. Later on, a one-year extension was given till July 2021. The contractor has developed only a 5 km road (Mhaismal Ghat to the Guest House) in this

period. The works included widening of road from 5.5 meters to 10 meters, surface levelling, construction of bridges, etc. He claimed of completing works of Rs 10 cr in three years and also recovered Rs 9 cr bills. There was indeed an issue of funds, but the office was not satisfied with the works done. It is also incomplete. Hence the PWD withdrew the contract

(partially) and re-invited the tender."

PWD re-invites tender of Rs 18.57 crore

The PWD division office (Aurangabad) has re-invited the tender of valuing Rs 18.57 cr to complete the development of the remaining 6 km long road stretched between Khuldabad T-Point and Mhaismal Ghat. Meanwhile, it is hoped that the work will start either after the monsoon or from the auspicious Diwali festival depending upon the funding.

" The tender has been re-invited to appoint a new contractor to develop road from length 0 to 6 km (till the end of Ghat) along with the balanced civil work. After completing the tender process, the work order will be issued soon," said Kolte.

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PWD fines Rs 95K per day to the contractor

Kolte underlined," The PWD has slapped a fine of Rs 95,000 per day upon the contractor (from July 21, 2021) till it does not complete the pending works on 5 km road (Ghat to Guest House). The fine money will be recovered from contractor's other ongoing works in the state."

Why PWD is shielding contractor?

When the present pathetic condition of the road was brought to notice, Kolte refused to comment saying, " The road could be not visible due to overspreading of mud on it during the rainy season."