After a major pilot project in Khamla was hampered by a dispute over outdated worker cost rates under its Common Schedule of Rates (CSR), the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) ambitious 52-day road resurfacing effort across 10 zones is set to miss its November 30 deadline.

The civic body was compelled by the problem to think about delaying the completion date by at least one month. The issue was discovered during a trial project in Vyankatesh Nagar, Khamla, where a contractor hired by the NMC to evaluate direct road restoration spent Rs57,000 but only got Rs2,918 according to the local body’s previous CSR. Using bituminous concrete and macadam, the pilot project resurfaced a 170-meter-long by 6-meter-wide section between October 14 and 17.

The company charged Rs 950 per labourer each day for the 60 workers that were assigned to the project. Nevertheless, NMC’s accounting department used its decades-old CSR, which sets the labour rate at a pitiful Rs1.61 per square metre, while processing the payment. Strong objections from the contractor resulted in the subject being submitted to the office of Chief Engineer Manoj Talewar due to the stark discrepancy between the actual market pricing and the amount that NMC was required to pay.

Senior officials have acknowledged that the present CSR is out of date and urgently needs to be revised to reflect the state of the market, as the matter is now being examined. The ongoing resurfacing programme, which spans 250 roads totalling 53.3 km over 10 zones, has been directly impacted by the incident, which has halted the rollout of comparable projects. The goal established by Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari was to finish all the work by November 30.

However, officials now claim that the conflict has interfered with planning and may cause delays in labour deployment and procurement in several zones. NMC intends to use its improved hotmix plant at Hingna MIDC to carry out all resurfacing work as part of the project. Earlier this year, the plant’s capacity was increased from 30 to 90 tonnes per hour, which improved quality control and decreased reliance on private contractors. The project, which has a budget of about Rs 14.5 crore, is the first time in 20 years that NMC is carrying out a significant resurfacing project wholly internally.

According to the plan, Dhantoli zone has the most roadways (16.8 km), followed by Mangalwari (10.4 km), Ashi Nagar (31 km), and Dharampeth (19 km). In the zones of Satranjipura, Laxmi Nagar, Hanuman Nagar, Gandhibagh, Nehru Nagar, and Lakadganj, smaller projects are planned. According to officials, the controversy surrounding the Khamla pilot has highlighted how urgently the CSR needs to be revised in order to avoid similar failures in future public works initiatives. The NMC is anticipated to continue its resurfacing drive, albeit one month later than planned, after the rates are changed and the problem is fixed.