The CAG report has indicted the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) for wasting enormous resources in the name of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Serilingampally, even while not achieving the target ultimately.
The Board did not adhere to the Manual of Sewerage and Sewage Treatment issued by the Union Ministry of Urban Development while going ahead with the Sewerage Master Plan in the Serilingampally municipality.
The DPR for the Master Plan in 2007 proposed six STPs to cover seven sewage catchment areas. Administrative sanction was accorded for ₹ 200.38 crore and the project was to be completed in 36 months.
However, owing to non-cooperation of local residents and land acquisition issues, the execution was delayed. A revised DPR was approved, with the proposal to construct Ring Drain around Durgam Cheruvu, to avoid land acquisition issues.
Construction of the STP at Lingamkunta suffered delays on account of court cases and the contractor did not resume the work later citing huge cost and time overruns. Two more STPs at Suram Cheruvu and Gopi Cheruvu were later withdrawn in view of prohibitive costs involved in the acquisition of land.
Construction of another STP at Hydershah Kota also was not taken up by the Board, the CAG report pointed out.
However, the Board went ahead with the laying of sewer pipelines for bringing in sewage generated in three catchment areas, namely Beverly Hills, Miyapur-BHEL and Kondapur, which were to be connected to the STPs mentioned above.
The cost incurred thus was ₹ 83.35 crore between 2007 and 2014, even before land was acquired for the STPs.
The Board incurred an addtional ₹ 7.95 crore towards laying of diversion sewer mains from Suram Cheruvu and Gopi Cheruvu STPs to the proposed STP at Hyershah Kota and the one at Lingamkunta.
Further, the catchment-wise flow in respect of Miyapur-BHEL area itself had an estimated average flow of 31 MLD and was estimated to go up to 64 MLD by 2041. Besides, the sewage from Kondapur too was to flow to Lingamkunta STP whose capacity was limited to 30 MLD.
“Planning of the STP with such a low capacity and the plan to divert further sewage flow into Lingamkunta STP was faulty and improper,” the report noted.
According to the Central Government’s manual, planning should begin at the tail end, going backwards to give an integrated and optimum design to suit the topography and the available hydraulic heads supplemented by pumping if essential.
However, due to the Board not adhering to the manual and laying pipelines before acquiring land for the STPs, there were time and cost overruns, even while the untreated sewage left into open drains and lakes contributed to environmental degradation, the report said.
Primary objective of sewage treatment has not been achieved even after seven years of commencement of the project, and ₹ 96.73 crore expenditure.
In its reply provided to CAG, the Government had accepted the audit observation and assured compliance in future.
