Another ambitious project of the erstwhile Samajwadi Party regime — Gomti Riverfront — has come under the scrutiny of Chief Minister Aditya Nath Yogi. During an inspection of the riverfront at Gomtinagar on Monday, Yogi looked dissatisfied with the (mis)use of time and money on the project.
Soon after taking over, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had announced to check irregularities in another dream project of former CM Akhilesh Yadav — lucknow-Agra Expressway.
Accompanied by a battery of his Ministers, Yogi reached the riverfront and rebuked the officials associated with the project. The irrigation department engineer PK Singh came in for some harsh words from the Chief Minister. Those who accompanied Yogi included Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Ministers Suresh Khanna, Ashutosh Tandon, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Brijesh Pathak, Dharampal Singh, Swati Singh, Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar, Principal Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal and others.
After an hour long inspection of the project, Yogi expressed his displeasure over the delay in the construction work and continuous escalation of cost. The CM caustically commented, “It is a pathetic example of inefficient work of officials and wastage of money and time as only 60 per cent work has been completed.”
The Chief Minister also expressed his displeasure at the fact that despite spending Rs1,400 crore, polluted water was going into the Gomti river and sought to know how the executing agency wasted public money on construction of non-essential items like fountains.
Stating that the previous government was not serious about the cleanliness of river Gomti, the CM also ordered that the Riverfront project will be merged with the Centre’s initiative of ‘Namami Gange’. He also said that despite being rapped by National Green tribunal (NGT), very little had been initiated of preventing dirty drains from flowing into the rivers.
Yogi also ordered that the Diaphragm wall should be extended to Kalakothi instead of Kudiya Ghat where it currently begins. The CM directed that every nullah opening in river Gomti be closed anbd suggested that sewarage should be treated first before falling into the river.
Yogi stressed that his government would allow any wastage of public money. He also pointed out that the project was given to the contractors and the executing agency without any monitoring.
“They first spent all funds on non-essential heads, whereas the work on crucial inter-septic tank on both sides aimed at tapping dirty drains was left midway and incomplete. Concerned officials should ensure that the under-construction septic drain is over by May 2017,” said Yogi.
The CM also ordered all Principal Secretaries to review projects of their departments so that unnecessary expenditure could be arrested. Besides, he asked the officials to set deadlines for completion of projects without compromising on quality.
Of the Rs. 1500 crore earmarked for the Riverfront project, Rs. 1433 crore have already been given to the executing agency and a total of Rs. 1427 crore have already been spent. Now the department was asking for an additional Rs. 1500 crore for completion of the project.
It may be pointed out that to complete the project, the Jal Nigam would require about Rs. 750 crore for upgrade of capacity of STP at Bharwara and to take inter-septic tanks to Bharwara while the Irrigation department has stressed on the need of Rs. 900 crore additional funds for completion.
The Gomti Riverfront project was envisoned by former CM Akhilesh Yadav as an answer to the Sabarmati Riverfront project of Gujarat government. The project was executed under the then Irrigation minister Shiv Pal Singh Yadav with controversial officer Deepak Singhal as Principal Secretary of the department.