Four deadlines missed, AMRUT project on at snail’s pace in Karnal

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, September 26

The execution of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) project, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, is moving at a slow pace in the city even after missing four deadlines.

The laying of storm water drain lines, installing of rainwater harvesting system and intermediate pumping stations at a cost of Rs 84 crore was started on July 1, 2017, and it was to be completed on January 31, 2019, but the project agency failed to meet the first deadline, forcing the government to extend the deadline to March 31, 2020 and further March 31, 2021 and later to June 30, 2021, but still a lot of work is pending. The fresh deadline is November 30.

Agencies told to submit progress report

I have reviewed the progress of the project and directed the agencies concerned to finish the remaining works in the fixed deadline. All agencies have been asked to submit a progress report every week and the site visit will be conducted every fortnight to assess the progress. —Manoj Kumar, Commissioner, KMC

Four rainwater harvesting systems were to be set up

Under the AMRUT project, around 38-km storm water drain lines were to be laid, along with four rainwater harvesting systems in Jhanjhari, Uchana, Dholgarh and Saidpura and four intermediate pumping stations at Mera Ghati, Saidpura, Hakikatnagar and Sector 5. —Satish Kumar, Xen, Karnal municipal corporation

Under this project, around 38-km storm water drain lines were to be laid, along with four rainwater harvesting systems in Jhanjhari, Uchana, Dholgarh and Saidpura and four intermediate pumping stations at Mera Ghati, Saidpura, Hakikatnagar and at Sector 5, said Satish Kumar, XEN, KMC. So far, around 35-km drain lines have been laid, while the civil work of the water harvesting systems have been completed, but the installing work of bore is yet to be done, he added. The civil work of Saidpura intermediate pumping station has been completed, but the mechanical and electrical work is yet to be done.

So far, around 50 per cent of the civil work of the pumping stations at Meera Ghati and Sector 5 has been completed, while around 30 per cent civil work of the Hakikatnagar pumping station has been completed.

The work of installing five tubewells and water supply line of around 49-km at a cost of Rs 13 crore has been completed. Besides, around 147-km sewerage pipe lines were to be laid in the deficit colonies at a cost of Rs 178 crore. The work was started on November 15, 2017 and the first deadline was October 23, 2019, and later it was extended to March 31, 2020 and further to December 30, 2020, but the company failed to complete the work. Later, the deadline was extended to June 30, 2021 and now the fresh deadline is February 28, 2022. So far, 142-km of sewerage pipelines have been laid, while two sewage treatment plants with the capacity of 20 MLD in Phoosgarh and 8MLD of Shiv Colony were to be constructed, but only around 78 and 76 per cent of the works have been completed, respectively.

Manoj Kumar, Commissioner, Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC), when contacted, said they had imposed a penalty of around Rs 1.35 crore to the agency assigned for the work of laying storm water drain lines. “I have reviewed the progress of the project and directed the agencies concerned to finish the remaining works in the fixed deadline. All the agencies have been asked to submit progress report every week and the site visit will be conducted every fortnight to assess the progress,” said the Commissioner.

Work incomplete

So far, 142-km of sewerage pipelines have been laid, while two sewage treatment plants with the capacity of 20 MLD in Phoosgarh and 8MLD of Shiv Colony were to be constructed, but only around 78 and 76 per cent of the works have been done.