The Japan International Cooperation Agency-aided water supply project for Thiruvananthapuram is gradually nearing completion, with six out of the seven zones almost ready for full-scale supply of water. The seventh zone has a few bottlenecks that remain to be straightened and may take a little longer than expected.
The over Rs.500-crore project, which has five packages, has only one package—distribution system—that has been lagging behind. Even that, according to Ashok Kumar Singh, Managing Director, Kerala Water Authority (KWA), is expected to be completed soon, and the entire project would be commissioned by December 2013. That, however, did not mean that supply of water in the completed portions would be delayed, and in several zones supply had already begun with the water supply situation already showing improvement, he said.
In regions like PTP Nagar, Peroorkkada, Kumarapuram and Mannanthala for instance, water supply was almost on a full-fledged scale, he pointed out, adding that out of the 11 tanks, nine had been completed.
The remaining two would be completed in two months. Setting up of intake wells and water treatment plants had already been completed, while work on the 38.5 km-treated water transmission mains was 98 per cent over with testing and commissioning of three sites going on at present.
The only hitch was for 133 km of the total 400 km distribution system. The work was 66 per cent over, and re-tendering for the balance work had been invited already. Tenders were opened on May 7 for work to the tune of Rs.38.98 crore. The tenders could be closed in 45 days and work would begin soon enough.
Issues at a few spots where the pipe-laying work was held up too would be sorted out soon, Mr. Singh said, adding that the entire work would be completed by December 2013. The scheduled completion date for the rest of the packages was May 2012 and that date was being adhered to.
The project, which had invited criticism from even the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the CAG report for 2011 for the inordinate delay in completion, had since picked up momentum, with only technical issues such as the bottlenecks in completing the distribution network in just one zone holding it up further, KWA officials point out.
