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Citizens worried over drainage project delay
Unsafe: The inordinate delay in the completion of Underground Drainage Project in Namakkal town has put the residents into trouble.
NAMAKKAL: Namakkal citizens are sore over the inordinate delay in the execution of their Municipality’s ambitious Underground Drainage (UGD) project. Authorities have rescheduled the deadline again to complete even the project’s first phase. The project took off in 2006. Its implementing agency, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board), has promised to complete the first phase, comprising the sewage collection system, before March 2008. Subsequently, it was postponed to July and has now been extended once again to October 2008.
The delay in carrying out the UGD works has put hundreds of residents into trouble. Most of the roads in the town, dug up for laying pipes, have become unsafe for vehicular movement. The trenches have not been closed at many places. The second phase of the project - construction of a sewage treatment plant - is still in the initial stage.
The issue figured at the municipal council meeting held last month. The Chairman and the councillors of all parties walked out of the council hall protesting against the delay in the project. They accused the municipal administration of not monitoring the project closely. The TWAD Board officials attributed the delay to the extensive underground rock that required additional drilling while laying the pipelines. The board had completed 55 per cent of the works in the first phase, they claimed.
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