BERHAMPUR: A whopping Rs 5 crore has been paid towards operation and maintenance (O&M) for the incomplete Janibili mega drinking water project which has been lingering for the last one decade.
The irregular payment of Rs 5 crore was made to Chennai-based L&T company for O&M without valid provisional/completion certificate, according to an audit by the Principal Accountant General. Reply to an RTI application filed by Berhampur-based social worker Sanyasi Gouda brought the matter to the fore.
The audit stated that pipes worth of Rs 3.25 crore were lying idle. Besides, penalty was not levied on the executing firm for non-completion of work while there were deficiencies in testing of drinking water samples besides quality monitoring and surveillance.
In 2013, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid its foundation stone. Tender was floated in 2016 for the project at Rs 488 crore and the construction work was entrusted to L&T.Though the project was to be completed by November 2018, L&T failed to meet the deadline due to several reasons. Before the general elections in 2019, the incomplete project was unveiled. Later, L&T again wrote to the state government to extend the deadline to February, 2020.
When the work could not be completed, the engineer-in-chief of Public Health approved another extension till June, 2021 with a penalty of Rs 10 lakh. Surprisingly, the construction company submitted O&M bill from 2019 though the project was still incomplete.
Janibili project aims to provide 300 million litre per day (MLD) of water which will be treated at the 60 MLD plant at Jagadalpur and 30 MLD at Dakhinpur, both on the outskirts of Berhampur city. Apart from the intake well, the project includes construction of 17 underground and 10 overhead tanks and laying of 232 km pipelines in Berhampur and adjoining areas.
While construction of overhead tanks is at final stages, pipeline on around 15 km of the total 232 km is yet to be laid in the city. Besides, rectification of leakages of overhead water tanks and house service connections and restoration of roads damaged due to laying of pipelines besides other works are yet to be completed.
