Citing progress in the implementation of underground drainage projects, Tiruchi City Corporation hopes that the contractors, who execute the Phase-II and Phase-III projects in the city, will complete it by June.
While the Phase-II UGD project was split into three packages and as many contractors were engaged for implementing the works, the Phase-III project is being implemented by Larson & Toubro. The estimate of the Phase-II project stands at ₹344 crore while the Phase-III is ₹312 crore. The civic body has sourced the funds under the Smart City initiative.
Phase-II project was started in 2018 and subsequently started the UGD works of the remaining two packages after a gap of about six months. Similarly, it began the Phase-III UGD works in July 2020. The works were started during the AIADMK regime. and no elected council was present when it started.
Though the spread of COVID-19 was reported to have dented the progress of the works, residents blamed ‘inefficient’ monitoring mechanism and the absence of elected council for the slow progress.
Faced with growing concern over the poor progress of work, Minister for Municipal Administration K.N. Nehru held meetings with the contractors and directed them to expedite the work. Mayor M. Anbazhagan and Corporation Commissioner R. Vaithinathan began to review the progress of works on a daily basis.
A few months are left for the contractors to complete the works and questions are raised as to whether they can stick to the time limit. However, the officials are confident that the contractors will complete it.
Mr. Anbazhagan told The Hindu that out of the 858-km length under the project, works are completed for 600 km of it. About 70% of the work had been completed so far.
