Berhampur: The snail’s pace of construction work on the much-awaited Janibili water project, meant to improve water supply to this city, has led to resentment.
Locals have expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in completing the project that was started two years ago. Despite several meetings being held to review the work, there has been no progress.
According to reports, the city gets water from the British era Dakhinpur reservoir, which is connected to Sorada reservoir. As it proved inadequate, the government has built the Rushikulya joint water supply project at Badamadhapur.
However, with a huge population, the city still experienced scarcity of water. To resolve the problem, the government has earmarked water projects at Cheligada, Ghatakeswar and Janibili.
While the proposed projects at Cheligada and Ghatakeswar remain at preliminary stage, the Janibili work is going on at a slow pace and is yet to be completed after so many years.
The project entails drawing water from Janibili diversion weir through underground pipes for a distance of 58 km and setting up of 100 MLD water treatment plant at Jagadalpur. It was planned to supply water from the project to Aska, Hinjili and 54 villages before it reached Berhampur.
Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid its foundation stone in October 2013. The tender for the construction work was bagged by Chennai-based M/s Larsen & Toubro in 2016 at a whopping cost of Rs 431 crore. The work started November 4, 2016, and was planned to be completed by November 3 this year.
However, only 40 per cent of the work has been completed so far.This has spread resentment among the locals who demanded the construction work to be completed soon because the water situation worsens during summer. They demanded the work to be completed before the onset of summer.
PNN
