The Zunheboto district court temporarily released the land and office building of the executive engineer, PWD (roads and bridges) in Dimapur from attachment and proclamations of sale till further order.
Zunheboto district judge Neichochyi Suyie passed the order on Saturday releasing the attached property after hearing an urgent application filed by Zunheboto executive engineer of PWD (roads and bridges), along with an “undertaking” to pay the outstanding dues to the plaintiff, a contractor, on or before December 2.
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The PWD, in its undertaking, assured to pay to the plaintiff the outstanding dues of Rs 3,97,98,000 with the interest of 7 per cent from August 17, 2017 and cost of the suit amounting to Rs 16,060 with 3 per cent interest till the date of realisation of the bill to the plaintiff on or before December 2, 2018. The department filed the application praying for release of the attached property and stay of sales.
The Dimapur principal district and session judge court on October 30 ordered attachment of the land and office building of the department’s executive engineer in Dimapur for proclamation of sale of the attached property in order to pay the contractor out of the sale proceeds. The order was passed following the Zunheboto district court precept for attachment of the property of PWD for non-payment of bill by the department for a contract work executed by the contractor in Zunhebot district.
The Nagaland PWD awarded the contract for construction of an RCC bridge over the Lanki river on Satakha-Saptiqa road in Zunheboto district at an approximate work value of Rs 522.95 lakh to Alen Meren Enterprises. An amount of Rs 125 lakh was released to the contractor during execution of the work, according to reports.
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The executive engineer of the PWD department in Zunheboto issued a completion certificate after the contractor completed construction of the bridge as per the specification in 2016.
However, the department failed to release the pending bill following which the contractor approached the Zunheboto district court for redressal of grievances.
After a hearing, the court on February 14 this year had passed an order directing the state government and its machinery to pay an outstanding amount of Rs 3,97,98,000 with interest of 7 per cent plus the cost of the suit to the contractor.