And now, there are no takers for village level overhead service reservoirs under the prestigious Mission Bhagiratha programme’s intra village water supply component. Contractors in erstwhile Adilabad district are of the opinion that the unit cost of the works in question is not remunerative, leave alone fetching.
“Yes, there is likely to be a delay in completion of these works by December-end as scheduled, especially in Kumram Bheem Asifabad and to some extent in Mancherial district,” concurred an engineering official on conditions of anonymity. “We will, however, achieve the target in Nirmal while the deadline for Adilabad has already been extended by six months,” he added, to indicate that things are not all that bad. The progress of works in the intra village water supply component is also facing hurdles due to lack of funds. According to sources at least ₹ 1.5 crore is the pending payment to contractors in each of the four districts which had constituted undivided Adilabad.
“The government has offered ₹ 8.6 lakh for constructing an OHSR of 10,000 litre capacity and ₹ 10.22 lakh for the ones with 20,000 litre capacity which is not sufficient. Engaging masons and skilled workers from other States will eat away into the budget,” a contractor pointed out.
Some of the contractors who are under pressure to complete the works have brought in masons from Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Raichur in Karnataka. The Coimbatore workmen are deployed in Narnoor in Adilabad district while the Chennai masons are working in Mudhole and Bhainsa area of Nirmal district. The water grid works in erstwhile Adilabad district envisages construction of 2,713 OHSRs of capacities varying between 10,000 litres and 40,000 litres, grouped in 3,625 habitations across the four districts at a cost of over ₹ 900 crore including the cost of 1,776 km of pipeline and optic fibre cable. Of the 2,713 OHSRs, which cost about ₹ 450 crore, works are in progress only on 1,173.
The construction of as many as 799 OHSRs is at earth excavation stage due to the shortage of labourers. Work on many others which have progressed over the ground has been suspended owing to lack of funds. Adilabad Rural Water Supply Superintending Engineer U.S.N. Murthy said payments would be released in the next few days. “The government has tied up with banks to raise funds,” he disclosed.
