The Telangana Drinking Water Supply Corporation Ltd, the nodal agency for implementing the Mission Bhagiratha programme, is planning to engage work agencies/contractors from other States in view of the increasing workload.
Vice Chairman of Mission Bhagiratha V. Prashanth Reddy, at review meeting held here on Tuesday, expressed displeasure over the intra-village works not gaining pace even one-and-a-half month after they began.
Several chief engineers brought it to the notice of Mr. Reddy that the problem had cropped up since the demand for construction of overhead service reservoirs had gone up sharply.
Priority was given only to the contractors from Telangana so far with a view to encourage them but the increasing work demand was forcing the project management to engage contractors from other States too, Mission Bhagiratha Vice Chairman noted and said that contractors from several States had already evinced interest in taking up intra-village works.
Assess capability
However, the Mission head said, a decision would be taken after visit of a team led by Advisor to Government C. Gnaneshwar to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to assess the quality of works executed by the applying contractors and check their eligibility to take up the works. Engineer-in-Chief B. Surender Reddy and he (Vice Chairman) would join them, if necessary.
He stated that engaging contractors from other State would be necessary to help Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao keep his promise of taking drinking water to every habitation by the year-end.
Field-level work
He directed the consultants, who had been focussing on planning and designing works so far, to take up the responsibility of employing labour from other States to speed up works.
They were also told to focus on progress of field-level works to ensure timely completion.
Mr. Prashanth Reddy pulled up a chief engineer for the delay in grounding and slow progress of intra-village works in the erstwhile Nizamabad and Adilabad districts limits.
Mission Bhagiratha Vice Chairman also instructed the authorities to transfer the lethargic field engineers wherever the works were slow and shift efficient hands to such places.
