The much-awaited Alappuzha Drinking Water Project is once again being debated in public domain, with the latest interferences from various quarters posing serious questions on the manner in which the Kerala Water Authority has been progressing with the project.
While an Assembly Committee reviewing the project posed questions on the tardy progress on Tuesday, it was the High Court itself that lambasted the KWA for the same barely a week back.
The project, conceived in 2007 to ensure pure water to the Alappuzha Municipality and eight surrounding panchayats of Purakkad, Alappuzha South, Alappuzha North, Punnapra South, Punnapra North, Aryad, Mararikulam South and Mannancherry as part of the Centre’s Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) at an initial cost estimate of Rs.151.94 crore, is to have an intake well and pump house at Cyclemukku, Kadapra in Pathanamthitta, from where water is to be taken to a treatment plant at Karumadi in Alappuzha.
While the Karumadi treatment plant has been completed, the answers given by the KWA on the rest of the progress did not find much favour with the House committee on Tuesday, and prompted the committee to issue directions that the project was to be commissioned by 2013 without further delays.
The High Court, meanwhile, was critical of the manner in which the KWA was moving ahead and while pulling up the authority, also asked for a status report, both from the State Government and the KWA within two weeks. Justice S. Siri Jagan’s order came in the wake of a petition submitted by the owners of the land in Niranam, which was originally earmarked as the site for the intake well and pumping station.
The land owners pointed out that nothing was done on the land and they were left in the dark whether they could use the land for any other purpose. The court, citing orders issued more than four years back that the project should be completed in a time-bound manner, said it should be made clear why the project was yet to take off.
The KWA, on the other hand, has been citing lack of permission from the National Highway Authority of India to dig up the highway to lay pipelines, which the House committee felt was not ground enough for such a crucial project to be delayed so long. The authority’s report to the Court shortly is likely to throw more light on the future of the project.
The project, in fact, was mired in controversy and technical bottlenecks right from the beginning. The detailed project report (DPR) of the project, originally drawn out for Rs.151.94 crore was revised in 2009 to Rs.247.65 crore, a move that triggered much controversy and grave irregularities being pointed out. Even as work began with whatever funds were allowed from the Centre, a third DPR was submitted in June 2010, bringing down the cost estimate to Rs.188.33 crore, which in early 2011 was again revised to Rs.193 crore. These revisions prompted the House committee to suggest on Tuesday that there were indeed attempts at illicit financial deals in the project, a matter that remains to be investigated and the culprits to be named.
