Public representatives express displeasure over slow speed of water works

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The union minister of state (MoS) for finance Bhagwat Karad and the state Co-operative minister Atul Save today took the new water supply scheme contractor GVPR (Hyderabad) to task for completing the project at a snail’s pace.

Save said, “The speed of a snail is more than the speed of the ongoing water works. This seems that the project would not meet the deadline of January 2024.”

Karad underlined, “If the contractor does not speed up or shows any improvement then initiative would be taken to impose restrictions upon ongoing GVPR projects in different parts of India.”

The review meeting was held in the Smart City office on Saturday. The district collector A K Pandey, municipal corporation administrator Abhijeet Chaudhari, Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) chief engineer R S Lolapod, former mayor Bhagwan Ghadamode, executive engineers M B Kazi, Kiran Dhande and others attended the meeting.

18-20 pc works

It is reviewed that 18-20 per cent of work has been done, so far. As per the schedule, 150 metres of the main pipeline was to be laid down daily, although in reality 108 metres are being laid. Till today the main pipeline of 12 km in length has been laid down. Besides, it has been decided that the construction of 11 elevated storage reservoirs (ESRs) was to be done by March end and hand them to the municipal corporation. The company had also nodded to it in the High Court. In reality, the work of four ESRs is in the last stages. The work of laying a 2,000 km length internal water distribution pipeline in the city is also going on at a slow speed, said the MJP executive engineer. The experts are not ready to start the work of the ‘coffer dam’ in Jayakwadi Dam. GVPR’s chief officer Nirnay Agrawal mentioned the outstanding bills, labour problems and other technical hindrances. The officers told that bills of Rs 158 crore had been paid to the company so far.

The union minister of state informed the MJP to submit details of GVPR projects ongoing in the state and other parts of India. If it is not doing the city’s work properly then we would think of bringing restrictions on their other projects.