Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
It was testing of the patience of the new district collector Dilip Swami as it took three hours for him to reach Paithan on Wednesday. He was going to review the training programme organised for Lok Sabha elections and the preparations made in connection with the forthcoming Nath Shashti festival.
He noticed that the work of laying a new pipeline and widening a four-lane road was going at a snail’s pace.
During the interaction, the villagers grieved that the common man had been pushed to face severe inconvenience due to neglect of the MJP and NHAI officials towards the above two projects. Hence the collector pressed the representatives of the contractors of both the works at the site and gave them a warning of filing cases against them if they failed to improve in their works within two days.
It so happened that the training of officials and women’s convention was organised at Paithan. Hence the convoy of the collector left the city in the morning. While on the way, the collector found that both the works were underway simultaneously. The trenches have been dug on both sides of the road. The waterworks were going on at a slow speed. There was traffic congestion on the road due to trenches on both sides. There was no traffic police to maintain smooth traffic on the route. The contractors' staff were also not present. There were billows of dust on the road. Hence the two-wheelers and three-wheelers riders were facing severe inconvenience. The collector notified all these things through his own eyes and he concluded that these works sans proper planning.
There was no traffic discipline in the heavy vehicles. Due to digging works, the incidents of pipeline damage have become frequent and lakhs of litres of water would get wasted. He also learnt that due to absence of diversion signages, the accidents were taking place regularly.
Threaten of filing cases
The Nath Shashti festival in scheduled to be held next week in Paithan. Lakhs of devotees and visitors will be taking this route to pay obeisance and return to the city. Hence to avoid their inconvenience, the collector took the contractors and the officials to task. He threatened to file cases under various sections holding them responsible for the inconvenience of the citizens and devotees, if the improvement is not made in both the ongoing works in two days.
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We are not responsible: NHAI
The NHAI project director Ravindra S Ingole said, “The laying of the main pipeline under the new water supply scheme to the city is going at poor speed. As a result, the speed of widening the road into four lanes has been reduced. Our work could not gain momentum until the water pipeline work is completed.”
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Water Works: The water work is underway by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) through GVPR company. The estimated cost of the project is
Rs 2,740 crore. The pipeline of 29 km in length has been laid down so far.
Road Works: The construction of four-lane road is underway by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through Sethi Contractor. The cost of the project is over Rs 270 crore and less than 30 percent work has been done, so far.