Kashi's Rs 253 crore storm water drainage project in deep freezer

VARANASI: The Rs 253-crore storm-water drainage project continued to be in deep freeze while the first spell of monsoon left Varanasi inundated. The flagship project under JNNURM was abandoned due to lack of maintenance.
The UP Jal Nigam, which claims to have completed the project in 2015, said the Varanasi Municipal Corporation did not take over the project and the water board lacks funds for maintenance.
UPJN officials are already in the line of fire as chief minister Yogi Adityanath had fixed a deadline of June 30 to streamline drinking water supply lines and make overhead tanks operational. The CM, during his visit on June 22, had warned that FIRs would be lodged against Jal Nigam officials looking after overhead tank construction and drinking water supply project if they failed to deliver by June 30. A similar deadline was fixed for officials with Shahinala restoration and repair project.
When TOI tried to take stock of the SWD project, shocking facts surfaced. General manager of Ganga Pollution Control unit (Jal Nigam) S K Rai said, “We completed the project in 2015 and also initiated the process of handing it over to Varanasi Municipal Corporation, the civic body refused to take over the project.”
Jal Nigam then brought the matter to the knowledge of then district magistrate, who formed a committee under an ADM to examine the project. Rai said the committee led by ADM submitted its report and asked VMC to take over the project, but the handing-over process did not take off. UPJN has no funds for maintenance and the project lies abandoned, said Rai.
Speaking to TOI, municipal commissioner Ashutosh Dwivedi said he did not have details of the project.
As per UPJN records, the project was approved under JNNURM by the Union and state governments in November 2008. The initial sanctioned cost of the project was revised from Rs 191.62 crore to Rs 252.73 crore. It had to be implemented in 28 months (December 2008-March 2011). But, the project could not be completed. The objective of the project was to provide drainage facility in the city in an effective manner, avoid waterlogging and recharge underground water and develop a new drainage system (separate from sewerage system) in integration with the old drainage system in a holistic manner.
With the completion of this project in 2015 the city got a brief relief from waterlogging for one-two years. However, the SWD failed to check the problem further due to lack of maintenance.