Even after almost half of the total time of 30 months given has passed by now, the rejuvenation, beautification and conservation works of the Harmu River in the heart of the city appears to have come to a standstill. The work which was started in March last year by Mumbai-based M/S Eagle Infra India limited has largely remained confined to a couple of foot-over bridges, levelling of soil along small stretches of the river and some plantation works.
Not only the people living around the stretch of little over 10 Km length of the project area, but also city planners also have developed doubts about the timely completion of the project. “I have been witnessing the development works going on since very first day, but the process has remained extremely slow. labourers come, do a piece of work and just go,” said Harendra Kumar, a local resident of Harmu colony. Similar versions echoed from a number of residents from both sides of project stretch.
Though development and beautification of pathways along the riverbed have started appearing at some places and little plantation work is also visible, the speed of the work as a whole remains slow. “I don’t exactly know why this work is slow. But seeing the current situation, I can only say that if this pace is going to stay, then work will not get completed in given time,” said Sanjeev Vijayvargiya, Deputy Mayor of the city. He claimed that shortage of fund must not be an issue, at least with this project.
Asking about why the development work at Harmu river is so slow, VN Sharma ‘Pankaj’, Additional City Commissioner in Municipal Corporation of Ranchi said that he was not aware of anything like that. He said, “It is true that inspection of development work might not have taken place in last one week or so for a number of reasons. But I have enquired from contractor company about the speed of development works today itself, and have instructed officials for uninterrupted monitoring of this project.” However, no one from contractor Company appeared to have a clear answer with him other than that it is just halfway mark of the total time given, and all necessary measures are being taken to get this work completed on time. Raghubar Das, Chief Minister of Jharkhand had last month directed the Urban Development Department to get all the ongoing development plans including the beautification and rejuvenation of Harmu River completed on time.