The instruction was issued at a project review meeting, where the minister questioned the slow progress of major roads, bridges and flyovers entrusted to the co-operative. The warning places fresh pressure on ULCCS to clear outstanding work within roughly three months.
Projects valued at approximately Rs 3,800 crore are affected across three funding and implementation streams. These comprise Rs 1,600 crore under the Public Works Department, Rs 1,500 crore associated with the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), and Rs 700 crore under the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP).
The figures describe the value of projects facing delays, rather than an independently established financial loss. The combined amount also does not establish how much construction remains unfinished, because the reported totals cover projects at potentially different stages of execution and do not separately identify expenditure already incurred or payments outstanding. No revised project-by-project completion schedule or assessment of additional costs has been made public alongside the minister’s instruction.
Construction difficulties are concentrated particularly in Kozhikode, Wayanad and Palakkad districts. The outstanding assignments include road improvements, bridges and flyovers, making the delays significant for transport infrastructure programmes in the affected areas.
Basheer also questioned ULCCS taking on substantial construction assignments outside Kerala while projects already entrusted to it within the state remained unfinished. His criticism focused on whether the organisation was adequately prioritising existing commitments before expanding its workload elsewhere.
The directive marks a sharper intervention in a matter the minister had previously acknowledged in the Legislative Assembly. During proceedings in June, Basheer said ULCCS had secured contracts because of the quality of its construction, but that an expanding workload had contributed to delays.
At that time, he said the government had not identified irregularities in the award of Public Works Department contracts to the society. He also maintained that established procedures applied to its assignments and that the organisation was not entitled to special treatment outside the applicable rules.
The minister’s earlier assessment distinguished concerns about delivery schedules from allegations surrounding the award of contracts. The latest warning likewise centres on completion of pending works, rather than any announced finding of wrongdoing in the society’s contracting arrangements.
Questions about the concentration of public works contracts with ULCCS were raised in the Assembly in June. Legislator V T Balram asked whether limits should be considered on the volume of work awarded to the co-operative, citing concerns over its growing share of assignments.
Basheer responded that any decision on limiting contracts would require consultation with the chief minister. He also acknowledged that the society’s growing commitments had created difficulties in managing work already undertaken.
A separate dispute over construction delays surfaced in October, when Basheer ordered an inquiry into the failure to complete the Kunnathur mini civil station project in Kollam district within the prescribed period. ULCCS had been entrusted with that construction assignment.
The minister instructed the department secretary and chief engineer to examine possible lapses by officials. Allegations that the project had been deliberately delayed to benefit the contractor, including for political reasons, were to be examined rather than treated as established findings.
That inquiry concerned a specific project and should not be conflated with the wider February deadline covering outstanding assignments.
(The article ‘Basheer sets Feb deadline for delayed ULCCS projects’ appeared first on Free Press Journal.)
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