Road infrastructure in state on the verge of collapse because of low quality of work at nominal rate

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, July 31, 2026

The road infrastructure in the state is fast headed for a collapse because of abysmally poor quality of work executed by contractors forced to bid for and obtain work at abnormally low rate. Flagging this problem two CPI (M) MLAs, Dipankar Sen of Belonia and Shailendra Nath of Jubaraj Nagar yesyerday met the chief engineer of PWD (roads and buildings) Anup Kumar Das and pointed out how even newly built roads are caving within days of completion of the work . The two MLAs also queried the chief engineer as to how contractors execute road or other construction works at 50-51% less than the tendered official rates . The chief engineer had no answer to the pointed queries but still assured the two MLAs of looking into the matter and correcting course.

Explaining the matter an experienced contractor said that in most of the PWD divisions tenders have to be obtained by paying ‘Mandal tax’ to cut money syndicates and the money paid in advance is recovered by near totally compromising the quality of work. In practical terms this means that no work is actually done except nominal things on surface. But then there are areas where the cut money syndicates or ‘Mandal tax’ system does not exist and there works can be more or less normally done but then bribing the engineers on percentage basis for clearance of bills is a must . This explains the compromised nature of all works.

He also explained that over and above the high or low rates of work, contractors are to pay GST at 2%, Income Tax at 2% and Cess at 1% of each work. “While the 1% Cess is deducted by the department at the time of payment of the bill , income tax can be adjusted at the time of submitting the annual return but GST poses a problem because GST numbers with amounts of paid bills are sent to the GST council after deduction of 2% at source and extra payment of 16% of the total bill value is a must” said the experienced contractor. This GST payment also includes payment for purchase of sand and wage bill of labourers for which no receipt is available . Actually the GST charge on purchase of sand and hiring of labour is not fair because no receipt is available for this but the Council includes this on the overall GST charge on bills paid by the department for civil construction works . “Unless the government comes down heavily on extortion of cut money and change the rules of work execution the quality of construction work of roads and buildings will never improve; a major positive change in this regard needs to be made” said the contractor .

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