A sewerage plant which is underway in Rourkela by the State Sewerage Board is completely a failure and involves massive corruption at its construction stage, alleged Rourkela DCC president George Tirkey. He urged for a vigilance inquiry into the project.
Briefing to scribes, Tirkey said in 2017 January, the Rs 340.25 crore-project was awarded to the L&T Company with a direction to complete within three years i.e. by January 2020. Under the project, the contractor has to spread pipes of 186 km and set up seven pump houses and two sewerage treatment plants. But surprisingly, the project is not yet complete after five years.
On the other hand, the Sewerage Board authority said the contractor will be allowed time till November, 2021 to complete the project.
But as revealed by the local Sewerage Board officials, out of 186 km, 30 km pipe spreading work is yet to start. Besides, the construction works of three more pump houses and one sewerage treatment plant are yet to start. Though the Sewerage Board authority claims so far that 156 km pipe spreading works are completed but this is false, asserted Tirkey.
Tirkey further said in many places the roads are not yet constructed or repaired and, in those areas, where roads are constructed that are with very low quality. Due to poor quality works the roads are damaged in many places causing accidents to the commuters.
According to Tirkey, besides Rourkela Main Road, in many areas of Chhend Colony and Basanti Colony the sewerage pipes were not yet laid. Tirkey said the Rourkela Smart City Limited has already improvised the road spending crores of rupees recently. In this condition if the pipes are spread underground now, who would bear the expenses to be caused due to road damage, he asked.
Similarly, from the north side of Chhend VSS Market to BSNL Chowk and near the Basanti Colony Water Tank Road, the pipes were not yet spread.
Tirkey said the Sewerage Board claims so far that the construction works of four pump houses and one sewerage treatment plant at Balughat are completed and the treatment plant is already operational. But in reality, out of six motors set up in Civil Township main pump house, only one is working. Similarly, the construction works of pump houses near Municipal College, Tisco and Industrial Area Grave Yard are not yet completed.
Besides, the project report says the waste water discharged from Tisco pump house will come to Grave Yard Pump house then to Civil Township main pump house after passing through ITI level crossing and then it will go to the Balughat treatment plant. But so far, the pipe spreading work has not been initiated at the ITI level crossing, said Tirkey and questioned as to how the Chief Minister inaugurated an incomplete project in February, 2021. He asked if the intention was not for grabbing eyeballs.
It was planned to provide sewerage connections to 40,000 households of the city but so far, only 400 households of the Civil township stay connected. On the other hand, when there is no instruction from the Government to collect any charges from the household, certain engineers of the Sewerage Board have been charging Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 per household through their pet contractors.
Similarly, while there is no provision in original drawing for spreading of pipes in Bagbudi Basti but the board is violating the provisions.
Though its outlet is made to the ring road through north side of bank colony but there is no planning for discharge of waste water. So, Rs 30 lakh was wasted. Even the role of monitoring agency, Mainhurt, a Singapore based company is also suspicious. So, Tirkey demanded a probe by Vigilance into the entire gamut of affairs.
Among others, former RDCC president Biren Senapati, RDCC spokesman RP Singh, State Youth Congress secretary Joseph Tirkey, Rourkela Youth Congress president Gyanendra Das and senior Congress leader Kailash Sahoo were present.
