Following widespread criticism about the delay in completion of drainage and sewerage project of Cuttack city under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a seven-member high-level team of the agency on Thursday visited the city and took stock of the progress in work of the ambitious project.
Work for the Rs715-crore project in the city began five years ago and it was expected to be completed by December 2014. “But by now, less than 20-per cent work is over and the manner in which the work is in progress, its completion is unlikely to be achieved by 2017,” said city Congress leader Muhammed Moqim.
After massive protests launched both by Congress and BJP leaders, the high-level team from the JICA visited the city on the day and said all efforts would be made to complete the project as soon as possible.
“We are visiting the worksites to find out the causes of the delay in the work and will take appropriate measures to remove the bottlenecks,” said a member of the visiting team.
According to sources, at least 23 km of the main drain of the city would be completely revamped under the project. “But work in only 3.5 km of the drain has now been taken up, of which only a little over 1 km of drain work is now over, said an employee of the agency supervising the work.
It may be mentioned that the Estimate Committee of the Odisha legislative Assembly, which visited the city in October this year, had expressed its displeasure over the delay in completion of the project. The committee had also sought a report from the JICA detailing the causes of the slow progress of the project.