Mangaluru: The State government has cancelled the contract for the reconstruction of the Shiradi Ghat road as part of Package 2 as the contractor did not begin the work even 13 months after getting the work order.

The National Highways division of the Public Works Department will now submit a revised estimate to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. After getting approval from the Ministry, it would call fresh tenders to execute the work, highly placed sources. The work would not be taken up during the winter and summer seasons and could be taken up only after the monsoon, sources said.

The department had not maintained the 13-km stretch of the road between Gundya and Kempu Hole Guest House for a year in anticipation of the closure of the road for the reconstruction work. With the road being battered with craters and potholes, the PWD has decided to take up the maintenance works on its own.

Road users, particularly those driving smaller vehicles, have almost been avoiding the Shiradi Ghat stretch for a couple of months. Shiradi Ghat is the major link between the coast and the hinterlands and it also connects Kukke Subrahmanya and Dharmasthala.

The PWD had issued a Letter of Intent to Hyderabad-based GVR Infra Projects Ltd. in November 2015 and the contractor had 18 months to complete the work. The contractor, however, did not gather the required material and start the work despite repeated notices.

The contractor has re-laid about 6-km of bitumen road off Sakleshpur and extended 36 out of 74 culverts on the stretch. This could be owing to his financial inability, sources said.

The department has recovered ₹11.73 crore of the performance security offered by the contractor. It would examine recovering 20 per cent of the project cost and recommending blacklisting the contractor, sources said.

Laying the 13-km stretch of a concrete road between Kempu Hole Guest House and Adda Hole near Gundya at a cost of ₹ 85 crore and re-laying the 21-km bitumen road between Gulagale and Heggadde at a cost of ₹33 crore formed Package 2 of the Shiradi Ghat road reconstruction.

Package 1 involving laying a 13-km concrete road between Heggadde and Kempu Hole Guest House was completed between January and August, 2015.