The commissioning of the 100 million litres a day water treatment plant at Maradu for augmenting the city water supply continues to be delayed.
The delay has been caused by NHAI’s tardy response to KWA’s request to permit digging the main road for laying pipelines.
The project is already delayed by over three years owing to people’s agitation against cutting the road at Piravom, from where the pipeline has been laid to bring in water to the treatment plant, 22 km away. The KWA official in-charge of the project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, said the NHAI sanctioned cutting the road from Kundanoor Junction to Aroor only on Thursday, nearly a year after the request was sent.
Work on laying the pipeline along the 5-km stretch will begin after Rs.3.60 crore is remitted with the NHAI along with Rs.70 lakh as security.
However, even laying of the pipeline for bringing in water for treatment is yet to be completed.
Work is on at Udayamperoor between Kandannad and Malekkad, a 3-km stretch. Underwater pipelines reaching the Maradu plant also need to be completed, with at least 1 km out of 3 km still to be laid. The KWA official said dredging works were over.
While the official claims the treatment plant will be ready in a month, the slow pace of work is likely to upset the schedule again.
