Tanzanian PM orders Indian contractor to complete water project

Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Thursday ordered an Indian contractor, Overseas Infrastructure Alliance (OIA) Pvt Ltd, to complete a water project in Coast region on schedule or terminate his contract.

Majaliwa was told by government officials on a visit to the project that the project at Chalinze was supposed to be completed on February 22 this year, but the project has been implemented by only 23 percent.

Early this month, Tanzanian President John Magufuli ordered the confiscation of the passport of an Indian contractor of the same firm after he had failed to finish a water project on time in the country's southern region of Lindi.

The contractor, Rajendra Kumar of Alliance Private Limited, was supposed to complete it in March 2015 but he reportedly failed to do so because he ran out of cash.

The 12.2-million-U.S.-dollar project in Lindi region was to dig 10 wells for the benefit of about 82,000 residents in the region.

The government is funding the wells with a loan from the European Union and German KfW Development Bank.

But on Thursday, Prime Minister Majaliwa visited the water project at Chalinze in Coast region and found that the project which started to be undertaken by Overseas Infrastructure Alliance (OIA) Pvt Ltd in 2001 was still incomplete 15 years down the road.

Majaliwa directed the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Gerson Lwenge, to ensure that the implementation of the project reached at least 80 percent failure to which the contract should be terminated.

"I have been told that you have extended the construction period of the project to 100 days until May 31, 2017, and if the contractor will fail to complete 80 percent of the works a process to terminate the contract should start," said Majaliwa, adding that the termination of the contract should be following by another process to pick a new contractor.

"When I visited Lindi region I found this same contractor who had failed to complete another water project on time and when the President visited the project he ordered confiscation of the contractor's passport pending completion of the project," said Majaliwa.

He added: "To be frank, this contractor has no required qualifications to undertake water projects."

Source: Xinhua