VIJAYAWADA: Admitting that the stormwater drain project in Vijayawada project in Vijayawada is moving at a snail’s pace, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) minister Botcha Satyanarayana said that the changes in the alignment of drains by the public representatives and the negligence of the contracting agency were to be blamed for the delay.
Replying to a question raised by Vijayawada city MLAs Gadde Ramamohan Rao (TDP) and Malladi Vishnu (YSRCP) during the Question Hour in the State Assembly on Monday, the MA&UD minister said that though the project was supposed to be completed by August 18 this year, only 57 per cent of the work has been completed.
“Of the 172 km of major drains that were to be laid, only 54 km has been laid. Similarly, of the 310 km stretch of minor drains, just 198 km has been completed,” Satyanarayana said. He listed road widening and removal of encroachments, court cases, permission and clearance from Railways, National Highway Authority of India, Roads and Buildings and the police as the major reasons for the delay in the project. Major festivals, restoration of damaged or fallen compound walls, shifting of electric poles and transformers and other services such as water pipelines, communication cables, sewer lines were the other reasons.
Malladi Vishnu alleged that the TDP corporators and the Mayor had allotted five kilometres of drain works in each of their divisions where there was no need of laying a new drain. “The two-year project is taking almost four years to get completed,’’ he said and demanded that the MA&UD order a probe into the irregularities in the project.
Vishnu said the money spent on the SWD project should have been spent on the underground drainage (UDG) projects which would have been better for the city.
Satyanarayana said the government will hold periodical review over the project and take action against the contracting agency if it delayed the project any further.
Gurajala MLA Kasu Mahesh Reddy raised the question whether there were any proposals for the creation of Dachepalli and Gurajala municipalities in Gurajala constituency of Guntur district. To this, the minister said, “We will take steps to merge Dachepalli and Nadikudi and make it a Nagar panchayat. Similarly, Gurajala will be merged with Jangamaheshwarapuram.”