Although Kota Srinivas Poojary, Minister for Ports and Muzrai, was pleased with the pace of work on the third stage of Malpe Fisheries Harbour during his visit here on September 4, the fact is that work has come to a standstill. The delay in construction work is being attributed to a change in design of quay structure diaphragm wall.
The third stage, coming up on 10 acres of land in the Baputhota area in Malpe, is being constructed at a cost of Rs. 37.15 crore. Of the amount, the Centre’s contribution is 75 per cent while the rest is by the State government. The third stage work, when completed, is expected to provide berthing or parking facility for 400 boats.
The work has been taken up by Yojaka (India) Pvt. Ltd. It was entrusted to Yojaka on June 21, 2011. As per the terms of the contract, the work should be completed by July 26, 2014. Only work on the RCC Bored Piled Jetty has been completed.
The Public Works Department (PWD- Ports and Fisheries Division), the Department of Fisheries, and Yojaka gave differing versions on the work completed in the third stage. According to the Department of Fisheries, work worth Rs. 12.51 crore had been completed till August 2011, while the PWD (Ports and Fisheries Division) said that work worth Rs. 13.07 crore had been completed till September 21. However, B.S. Shetty, deputy general manager of Yojaka, who is also the project engineer, said that work worth Rs. 11.19 crore had been completed.
Mr. Shetty told The Hindu on Friday that Yojaka was yet to receive the structural drawings and designs of diaphragm wall and other buildings from the government authorities. If the drawings and designs were received quickly, the company would be able to finish the work within the stipulated time. “Our men and machinery are lying idle for the last three months because we do not have the designs and drawings. Material worth Rs. 1 crore is lying unused here,” he said.
According to him, the diaphragm wall work had been delayed by 16 months. Without the diaphragm wall, other work such as the double-lane asphalt road, dredging and reclamation of land with borrowed earth, boat repair shop and net mending sheds could not be constructed. “Had the diaphragm wall work had started on time, we would have completed nearly 50 per cent of work,” he said. However, according to T.S. Rathod, Executive Engineer, PWD (Ports and Fisheries Division), the height of the diaphragm wall was 2.5 metres in the earlier detailed project report. But when construction was taken up, the Department of Fisheries and fishermen demanded that the height of the diaphragm wall be raised to three metres.
At a meeting on July 26 chaired by Deputy Speaker Yogish Bhat, it was decided to seek a revised design of the diaphragm wall from the Central Institute of Coastal Engineering for Fishery (CICEF), Bangalore. The CICEF would prepare the design and give to the user department (Department of Fisheries). It would also give a copy of the design to the Chief Engineer of Public Works (Ports and Inland Water Transport) Department for approval. “We expect the revised design from CICEF in the next 20 days.
The approval process will take another 10 days,” Mr. Rathod said. “Due to all this, construction work on the third stage has been delayed by five months,” he added.
