Turkish Company Working In Kanpur Metro Flew With Unpaid Dues 80 Crores

A Turkish company working on the Kanpur metro rail project has fled the city with unpaid dues of Rs 80 crore. The company, Gülermak was working on the underground section of a metro in Kanpur before fleeing the city.

According to an India Today report, payment of 53 contractors was due for about ten months and the company delayed payments after protests over Turkey’s support to Pakistan amid tensions with India.

All the top officials of this Turkish company have fled the city, as per the contractors. On being contacted over phone, the officials gave evasive answers and avoided the issue, the contractors said.

A complaint was submitted to Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) officers but no action was taken. Later, nine contractors approached the District Magistrate’s (DM) office and filed a written complaint.

According to the contractors, the company delayed the payment after nationwide protests over Turkey extended support to Pakistan.

The work on the metro project was being done in a joint venture of Indian company Sam India and Turkish construction company Gulermak. The company gave work to 53 sublet firms. The company got the work done kept a large amount of pending and made small payments instead.

Of the 53 contractors who built the section of the underground station, representatives of nine contracting firms reached the DM office on Monday and submitted a memorandum.

The contractors sought release of Rs 3.70 crore of Metro Marble, Rs 1.20 crore of Radiant Services, Rs 1.70 crore of Shreyans Infratech, Rs 74.80 lakh of S Interior, Rs 39.80 lakh of MD Ehasan Painter, Rs 8.54 lakh of Vinod Gupta Enterprises, Rs 29.50 lakh of Nandan Prefab, Rs 21.50 lakh of Shri Balaji Enterprises, as per the report.