BUDDHA NULLAH PROJECT
Ludhiana: In a relief to businessmen who are against the Rs 519-crore Buddha Nullah rejuvenation project, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, will visit Ludhiana on Thursday to study and assess the volume of water that is being discharged in the drain. On the basis of the study, the team will inform the local authorities if the design and technicalities of the project were correct or needed some changes.
Sources said the team was invited by the local bodies department to put an end to the controversy over the rejuvenation project’s alleged inflated cost and flawed design. The development comes in the wake of a letter sent recently by businessmen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention in restraining the Punjab government from executing the project.
Tarun Jain Bawa, president of Bahadur Ke Textile and Knitwear Association, said, “It seems it has been confirmed that there are anomalies in the Buddha Nullah project approved by the state government. If that was not the case, then why the local bodies department has invited the team from IIT, Roorkee. The officials know there are flaws in this project. We hope the IIT team’s findings will stress the design faults and recommend changes.”
About the flaws, Bawa said, “The project is not as per the required capacity and this has been proved in a study by Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana. The study corroborated that the water flow level in Buddha Nullah (which is to be cleaned) is approximately 2,000 MLD (millions of litre per day), but the rejuvenation project has been finalised on the basis of a report prepared by the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC) in which the discharge water level has been estimated at 700 MLD. Besides, the project cost is inflated as it has been allotted for Rs 519 crore, but can be completed for Rs 325 crore.”