Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Eshwar B Khandre has directed officials to blacklist Larsen & Toubro (L&T) after the company failed to make progress on a drinking water project intended to serve 388 rural habitations in Dharwad district, along with villages in Kalghatgi and Saundatti.
Khandre issued the direction at a Jal Jeevan Mission review meeting at Vikas Soudha on Wednesday, after officials briefed him on delays in the project. The scheme is designed to supply water to rural habitations in Dharwad and Belagavi districts and Kalghatgi town from the Renukasagar reservoir.
According to officials cited in the review, L&T had not initiated the purchase of water pipelines, had failed to deploy adequate manpower and was executing the work at a very slow pace. The company had also not been submitting progress reports, despite having received a final notice, officials said.
Khandre expressed displeasure over the lack of improvement and referred to an earlier meeting he had held with contractors and department officials at the department’s commissionerate on September 11. At that meeting, he had directed agencies to speed up pending works and submit weekly progress reports.
The minister said L&T had failed to improve its pace of execution despite those instructions and directed officials to blacklist the company. The reported action would affect the company’s eligibility for future government work under the applicable departmental process, although details of the blacklisting procedure and its duration were not provided in the report.
Khandre also reviewed delays involving other contractors implementing multi-village drinking water projects. He instructed officials to issue final notices to agencies that had failed to meet their deadlines and said delays would not be accepted except where works were held up by pending forest clearances.
The projects are being implemented as parts of the Jal Jeevan Mission, which seeks to extend piped drinking water supply to rural habitations. In this case, the planned network is linked to the Renukasagar reservoir and covers settlements across two districts as well as Kalghatgi town.
The minister said delays could defeat the purpose of the projects, particularly as several parts of Karnataka were facing drinking water shortages because of inadequate rainfall. The review therefore linked project execution with the immediate availability of water supplies in affected areas.
Principal Secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Secretary D Randeep, Commissioner Fouzia Tarannum B, Venkataraju, Chief Executive Officer Rahul Shinde and other officials attended the meeting. The department’s next reported steps are to process the direction against L&T and issue final notices to other agencies that have missed project deadlines.
