Contractor unmindful of R’kela residents’ woes

The construction  work  of  a sewerage  system in Rourkela, which is  being  undertaken by  the L&T company, is  absolutely horrible  as  residents  across the town have been  facing a lot  of difficulties.

The contract for the construction work of the sewerage  system of Rourkela  city( west and east) was  awarded  to  Waste  Water Effluent  Division of L&T  by the Odisha  Water Supply and Sewerage Board under the Housing  and Urban  Development  Department, Government of  Odisha in 2017.

The contract was worth Rs 340.20 crore. It also includes five years of operation and maintenance. It is a Government of Odisha initiative, but the Central Government is also giving some financial aid under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) Yojana.   As  per  the  agreement, the  sewerage  system  of  Rourkela  city in  west  will  be done  in Chhend,  Civil  Township, Udit Nagar,  Basanti Colony,  Tarkera and Nayabazar and  in east  Jagda, Koel  Nagar,  Shakti Nagar and Jhirpani. After  the  completion of the  sewerage system  work, the  waste water of  safety  tank, kitchen and bathroom will go  through  the  pipeline  which  is  laid underground  and  thereafter will go  to  pumping  station at different  stations  and  then pumping  will  be  done.

After pumping,  the  waste  will  go  to transition  manhole; then the  waste  water  will  go  to main pumping  station  at  Civil Township  and  thereafter will  go  to sewerage treatment plant at Balughat.  The  plant  is  scheduled  to  be  completed  by  January 2020  and its capacity is 40 million liters  per day.

The  sewerage  system  work is presently  going on at Chhend, Basanti Colony, Uditnagar, Civil Township  and  Tarkera  while the work  is yet  to  be  started  at  other  places of the city.   Ever  since the sewerage  system work was started  by  the  contractor, residents of  the  locality  and  the  passersby have started  facing a lot of problems and their  woes  have  increased.

Basically, many accidents have been caused due to open   manholes. House sewer  connection  has  not  yet  been provided to the houses at a number  of  places even after  four  months  of  completion of  pipe laying and manhole  work.  House  sewer connection  should  have  been  provided  during  the  pipe laying and  manhole  work.

The  total  work  of pipe laying, manhole and house sewer connection which  should  be  completed  within 7-10  days by  contractor, but it is  taking  months. The  bitumen / concrete  road  which  had been dug for  sewerage  connection work has not  yet been restored and the  public  while  going  through these  roads are  falling in manholes. JCBs,  while digging  the  road  for sewerage system  work,  also are damaging water  connection line  following which water  supply  has been stopped to  houses.  The professional approach of the work is absolutely lacking by the contractor.

While admitting  serious  lapses occurring in the  work  by the contractor, Project  Engineer  of  Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board  Office  of  Rourkela,  Karunakar  Ghadei said, “ We  have started  monitoring  the  work  and are  working  to  address  the grievances, so  that  public  or  residents  would  not  face  any problem.”