Jamshedpur: Work on Adityapur's Rs 234-crore sewerage project stopped for at least 20 days as Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCO), a wing of state urban development department, in charge of the project, has not handed over the sewage treatment plant design to implementing agency Shapoorji Pallonji.
Said to be a priority project of the urban development department and inaugurated by chief minister Raghubar Das on February 11 with a 30-month deadline, little progress has been made in two months.
A source in the Adityapur Municipal Corporation said as of now only a 3-feet-deep square pit in Sapra, Adityapur, had been dug before work stopped. The sewage treatment plant is supposed to come up in Sapra. This apart, the sewerage project comprises 134km-long pipelines and five sewage pumping stations.
The sewerage project stands to benefit some 2.5 lakh Adityapur residents though the 2011 Census puts its population at 1.87 lakh. Existing old pipes often leak puddles of sewage and overflow in drains, even running the risk of contaminating old drinking water pipes.
NGO Jan Kalyan Morcha, which had agitated to set up the mega sewerage project for Adityapur that has a 60-plus-year-old sewerage, is concerned over the interruption.
A Jan Kalyan Morcha delegation led by its chief Om Prakash had inspected the Sapra project site on Saturday.
"We saw the progress of the STP (sewage treatment plant) site at Sapra, which was disappointing. The executing agency (Shapoorji Pallonji) has many things to do in the mega sewerage project to finish it within deadline. If work stops midway, the project will be delayed and ultimately Adityapur residents will suffer," Om Prakash said.
Asked, JUIDCO general manager Sajal Sengupta who is in charge of the Adityapur sewarage project said work had "stopped temporarily".
"Work to finalise the STP design is on. As soon as the designing part gets through, the executing agency will resume work," Sengupta told this paper. Admitting to some delay in preparing the STP design, he claimed the project would be ready on time.
