A proposal conceived in 2005 for setting up six low Temperature Thermal Desalination (lTTD) plants on lakshadweep Islands for converting sea water into potable water has remained a half-baked plan with just two of them being established so far. The CAG in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday has slammed the Ministry of Earth Sciences for wasteful expenditure by its autonomous body, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, causing loss of Rs 4.32 crore to the government exchequer.
Though one more plant was also established, it remained non-functional due to site related issues.
The CAG observed that NIOT neither conducted detailed survey of the locations nor assessed the techno-economic conditions before committing to the project initially. Further NIOT committed large scale commissioning of desalination plants at eight locations even though its mandate was limited to providing technical services.
"It also failed to assess its manpower position to ascertain whether such extensive work could be effectively and efficiently supervised. Deficiency in planning the project resulted in frequent revisions in the scope of work as well as cost of the project, delay in project execution and wasteful expenditure of Rs 4.32 crore on the non-functional plant at Andtrott island," the auditor stated.