A water supply improvement scheme (WSIS) in Alandur has missed its deadline by a year.
Deadline not met
The project was supposed to have been completed in November 2011, but to date, only a little more than 70 per cent of it has been finished.
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Residents of the locality however, are not surprised, as they say nearly all infrastructure development initiatives here are invariably well behind schedule.
To press for the early completion of the scheme, sorely needed in the erstwhile municipality (it was merged with Chennai Corporation last year), a group of civic activists met top officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) recently.
The residents, who represent various civic groups, said that the frequent, inordinate delays of a project as big as this one not only made the wait for an adequate supply of drinking water longer, it also inflated the project’s costs considerably.
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Original cost Rs. 65 cr.
Residents and activists in Nanganallur recalled that the WSIS was sanctioned for Alandur municipality as early as 2009, prior to its merger with the Corporation. The project’s original estimated cost was nearly Rs. 65 crore, and it was to have been completed by the end of 2011.
The delay in completion, they said, has also let to other problems such as bad roads, as roads were not restored after they were cut to make way for distribution lines.
The residents and activists, collectively under the umbrella of the United Federation of Nanganallur Welfare Associations (UNFWA), submitted their grievances to CMWSSB officials.
The residents, who included K. S. Raghavan, secretary of the forum as well as V. Rama Rao, among others, urged CMWSSB to complete the project at the earliest. Work still to be done includes the construction of seven overhead water tanks, they said.
CMWSSB officials assured them that the project would be completed by the second quarter of 2013. A review meeting would also be held to help speed up the project, activists said.