Steel prices hovering at Rs 38,000 per metric tonne in the first week of March have gone up to Rs 52,000 and continue to rise.

STEEL WALL

WHAT: Games projects are getting delayed.

WHY: Contractors not quoting prices for tenders as steel prices continue to rise.

WHAT NOW: Contractors say they won't quote till govt compensates them.

Rs 38,000 per metric tonne steel price in first week of March. Rs 52,000+ is current price.

Top officials of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) admitted that construction agencies were not too keen on participating in long-term and high-value contracts, including the Commonwealth Games projects `owing to upwardly fluctuating steel prices in the market.' The CPWD is overseeing the renovation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, Talkatora Swimming pool and the Karni Singh shooting range. "We have requested the Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Steel to intervene in larger public interest," a top CPWD official said.

The contractors said they had decided not to bid for works or quote tenders unless government compensated them for the escalated prices. Ram Avtar of Swadeshi Construction Company that is working at the IGI stadium site said that the Commerce Ministry's economic advisor had not collected actual data and had not revised the cost index due to which contractors were not getting compensated. "We have decided not to respond to tender quotations unless we are compensated," Ram Avtar said.

Civil engineers in the Delhi Development Authority and CPWD said that the Commonwealth Games projects had slowed down. They said when the cost index was finally revised on March 29 from 278 to 330 points, it still did not reflect the market prices. Contractors had been requesting that they be allowed to purchase from secondary manufacturers instead of TISCO, SAIL and RINL. But the secondary manufacturers supplied inferior steel and quality of work would get affected, engineers said.