Berhampur: Even as the laying of foundation stone for a solid waste management project here is soon going to complete five years, the project has failed to make any headway, a report said Monday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone at Mahuda October 3, 2013. The district administration identified 32 acre of government land for the purpose at Mahuda and handed it over to the Berhampur Municipality Corporation (BeMC). The delay in the project work has sparked resentment among the residents and incumbent members of the municipal council who are expected to take up the issue in the council meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
The project will be the largest of its kind in the state. The decision to establish a solid waste management project was taken by the previous municipal council led by then mayor Siba Shankar Das to chemically treat the over 140 mt of waste produced in the city on a daily basis. The project was planned to be established under the My City, Clean City programme.
The Urban Infrastructure Development Fund of the state urban development department also sanctioned Rs 423 crore for the project.
The municipal council decided to execute the project on public-private-partnership mode and searched for prospective private enterprises to participate in it. A woman officer Aidel Paris of International Finance Corporation (IFC) negotiated on behalf of the BeMC and selected a leading Gujarat-based firm for the project.
The initial plan outlay for the project was estimated at Rs 70 crore as the BeMC signed an agreement with the Gujarat firm August 30, 2013. It was then planned to collect all the waste from markets, streets, fast food outlets, hotels, vegetable vending zones and dispose them at Mahuda for chemical treatment.
A media workshop was conducted by BeMC at the conference hall of the office of the RDC (South) to spread awareness on the project May 17, 2013. In the workshop, IFC officer Paris had made a detailed explanation on the project to media persons. The Collector, the MLA, the BeMC commissioner and other dignitaries has attended the event.
However, the project failed to take off after the Gujarat firm delayed in submitting bank guarantee for the project to BeMC. It finally withdrew from the project after dillydallying for two years without even laying a brick.
The BeMC again floated a tender in which two firms from Maharashtra and Bhubaneswar were selected jointly for the project. Since then, the sanctioned funds are lying unutilised in the bank. While the BeMC gets interest from the fund deposited in the bank, also pays interest to the urban development department.
BeMC sources said the construction of compound wall around the project site is on its last leg and soon work will start on the project.
PNN
