GUNTUR: The Guntur civic body is making efforts to expedite the underground drainage (UGD) and road widening works in the city. For the UGD project, the State government has sanctioned `903 crores and the public health engineering department, in coordination with the Guntur Municipal Corporation(GMC), started works for it in January 2017.
For the purpose, the city has been divided into five zones as was required by the official design and 1,083 km long pipeline are currently being laid to connect 1.40 lakh houses for the collection of discharged drainage water. As per estimations by the engineering department, every household discharges 500-750 litres of drain water per day.
The GMC has formed special teams to monitor the works round the clock. Directing the officials concerned to use more manpower for quick completion of UGD construction, Collector K Sasidhar has asked the contractors to lay a minimum of 10 km road after completing the UGD works.
Also, the collector has instructed the officials to take up road widening works, after completion of the underground drainage project, without causing any inconvenience to the public.
In a recent meeting with representatives of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, who have undertaken responsibility for construction of UGD, GMC chief Srikesh B Lathkar directed them to continue with the works round the clock and said he would hold inspections even during night hours to ensure that the project is completed by December.