Residential complex for judicial officers in Delhi's Dwarka: PWD bars NCCBM for 2 yrs over poor construction

Indian Express

22-05-2025

The Public Works Department (PWD) has debarred the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM), a research and development organisation under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and a private contractor for two years over the poor construction quality of 70 residential flats for judicial officers in Dwarka's Sector 19 in West Delhi.
Last year, the flats were demolished due to the substandard construction, even before the allotment.
The orders comes days after Delhi PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh directed the department to blacklist the contractor and initiate a vigilance enquiry against nine PWD officials, including the Chief Engineer and Superintendent Engineers, involved in the project.
NCCBM was unavailable for comment on the matter when approached by The Indian Express.
The Finance Department had recently deferred a proposal, moved by the PWD, to reconstruct flats on the land.
According to the latest order issued by the PWD on Wednesday, 'a third-party quality assurance services' work was executed by the NCCBM under agreement with a stipulated date of start as March 1, 2016, up to completion of the main project.
The construction work on the project was awarded in 2014 with a stipulated target to complete it by February 2017. But the first contract was rescinded in 2018, and an amount of Rs 30 crore against the total cost of Rs 48 crore was spent, as per officials.
While the construction work by the private contractor, MBL Infrastructure, began on October 10, 2014, and targeted completion by April 2016, the work was rescinded on March 23, 2018, as per officials.
The PWD order underlines that several cracks in the beam, column, and the facade had developed and were visible all across the five towers even before the allotment of the flats.
'The floors of quarters have swollen in upward directions, and RCC (reinforced cement concrete) cover portions of structural members — i.e. column, beams, chajja — are falling continuously. The reinforcement where the concrete has fallen is visible and seems corroded,' reads the document.
'The building, due to the appearance of serious distress in beams and columns, has to be demolished due to issues of structural safety pointed out in the report of IIT-Delhi… it is evident that the work was not executed with due diligence, which caused development of structural distress, corrosion in reinforcement leading to opening of cracks in beams, columns and also spalling of concrete within a short period of four years after completion of work,' said the PWD in the order.
With no solution in sight, the PWD last year decided to demolish the building. According to officials, PWD issued a show cause notice to NCCBM and the contractor last year in October and sought an explanation as to why the agency should not be debarred from the tendering process for executing such poor quality of work.
'The reply to the show cause notice was received on October 10, 2014…whereas it was decided by the competent authority that an opportunity of being heard provided to you on May 6, 2025… Further, the competent authority allowed time to respond and submit a fresh written submission to the show cause notice by 13.05.2025. Further, your letter was received on May 7…,' said the PWD.
Officials said that after careful examination of the submitted reply to the show cause notice and taking into consideration all the facts, PWD finally decided to debar NCCBM and MBL infrastructure from the tendering process for two years. However, officials said running contracts shall remain unaffected.