After terminating the contract with the private firm for failing to carry out the underground drainage (UGD) works as per schedule, the Corporation now has a Herculean task to look for a new contractor and resume work at the earliest and thereby put an end to the woes of the residents.
Corporation engineers said that though financial loss due to the current scenario can be manageable, the process of restarting the work involves cumbersome documentation and clearance at many levels at various departments of the State government. They added that the incomplete work in laying pipelines, giving house connections and relaying of tar-topped roads was posing a hardship to the residents as they had to encounter with bad roads everyday.
Engineers said that the entire process from preparing the revised estimate, getting administrative sanction from the government and the technical committee and finally placing the tender and inviting bids would take at least four months. Besides, selecting the contractor and executing the work would take another two months as a team of engineers had to carry out the entire process for resuming the work.
Members of various residential associations pointed out the difficulties they faced due to poor roads now and how the situation worsened during rainy season. Battling with bad roads was a tough and risky job everyday for residents and wanted relaying of road work to resume immediately.
The UGD work was initiated at a total cost of Rs. 149.39 crore with the State government grant of Rs. 10 crore, contribution from the corporation and from the public estimated at Rs. 78.85 crore and loan from Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund III at 60.54 crore.
The entire work was divided into three packages, i.e, Package I at a cost of Rs. 15.50 crore to cover 86.14 km and the work order given on March 18, 2010, Package II at a cost of Rs. 37.70 crore to cover 150.65 km and the work order given on December 2, 2010 and Package III at a cost of Rs. 37.40 crore to cover 184.82 k.m. and the work order given on March 18, 2010.
The work order for Packages I and III of the UGD was terminated by the civic body recently, while work was in progress under Package II.
