New Delhi: The Railways on Thursday decided to terminate the contract of a Chinese company due to 'poor progress' on the signalling and telecommunication work on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor's 417-km section between between Kanpur and Mughalsarai.
In a statement of DFCCIL, it was mentioned that the despite the passage of 4 years, the company had a progress in work of just 20 percent.
"There is no improvement in progress despite repeated meetings with them at every possible way," the statement said.
It also mentioned various issues with the Chinese firm due to which the contract got terminated.
"Reluctance of the company to furnish technical documents, as per the Contract Agreement, such as logic design of electronic interlocking. Non-availability of their Engineers/ authorized personnels at site was a serious constraint," read the statement.
"Physical work could not progress as they have no tie-up with the local agencies. Material procurement, which is an independent activity, has not been done earnestly," it further added.
The contract was given to Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication, in June 2016, costing Rs 471 crore. The Chinese firm was given a task to complete the signalling and telecommunication work in the 417-km long Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay section.
The development comes after 20 Indian Army soldiers were reportedly being killed in a violent face-off between India and China troops at Ladakh's Galwan Valley. India is mulling upon various economic measures to counter China.
However, DFCCIL did not attribute to the cause to the recent de-escalation of tensions between the two countries and had no mention of it.
"DFCCIL has decided to terminate the contract due to very poor performance of the company," said a Railway officer.
The firm were supposed to complete the work by 2019, but only 20 per cent of the work has been completed so far, said the Railways. (With inputs from PTI and ANI)
