Balasun water project: Subrata team seeks time for Balasun

Darjeeling, Feb. 21.TT: The PHE department is not keen on Mamata Banerjee inaugurating the Balasun water project at the end of this month and insisted that it needed a fortnight more to complete it.

The PHE claim has been shot down by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which alleged that the project was far from completion. But whether Mamata inaugurates the schemes or not, she is likely to announce a Rs 7 crore water supply package for the hills.

The PHE department under Subrata Mukherjee is the executing agency of the Rs 55.86 crore Balasun project that will pump out water from the Balasun river for distribution across Darjeeling town. The construction work is being done by the Hyderabad based Ramky Infrastructure Limited.

The PHE department developed cold feet when the government suggested that the chief minister will inaugurate the project during her visit to the hills later this month. PHE officials said they would tell their minister to convince Mamata not to inaugurate the project now.

Darjeeling municipality chairperson Amar Singh Rai said the PHE officials have claimed that the construction was complete but another 15-20 days would be needed to rectify defects or problems once the water is pumped out from the Balasun.

“The chief minister wants to symbolically inaugurate the project during her visit to Darjeeling. The PHE officials are, however, apprehensive. They said they would need another 15-20 days for the project to be ready for the inauguration,” said Rai, who attended a meeting with PHE officials in Calcutta today. He said the PHE officials were even against a symbolic inauguration.

“The PHE department officials were not too keen on the symbolic inauguration too. They said they would try and speak to their minister so that he could convince the chief minister not to inaugurate the project during her visit,” said Rai. PHE minister Subrata Mukherjee did not attend the meeting. In a “symbolic inauguration”, the actual distribution of water will not start from the day of inauguration but only when the project was completed.

Today’s meeting was chaired by Alapan Bandopadhay, principal secretary of the municipal affairs department, and was attended by Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan and officials of the municipal engineering department among others.

“I, and even our Darjeeling MLA, have doubts over the PHE officials’ claim that the construction has been completed. We, have, therefore decided to go for field inspection on February 24 to verify their claim,” said Rai.

The foundation stone of the project was laid on February 19, 2006, by then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. When Ramky Infrastructure Limited started construction in 2007, they had said the project would be completed within 24 months.

But in 2011, the PHE officials while replying to an RTI query of Ramesh Khadaria, a resident of Pulbazar, had admitted the delay in completing the project.

“The time for completion allotted for the work is three years from the date of sanction and placement of funds, i.e. March 2009. The reasons for the delay is due to political unrest and frequent strike call in the region, spanning several days and several weeks and also in the initial stage due to delay in getting permission from different authorities like forest department, railway and military authorities and land disputes (sic),” the reply had read.

Rai said Mamata will announce a Rs 7 crore package for the Darjeeling municipality to replace old water pipes between Senchel and Rockville. “We were told that Rs 155 crore meant for the Darjeeling municipality to revamp the water distribution system may not be sanctioned by the Centre as the Jawarhalal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, which was to fund the project, is coming to an end in March 2012.

“So for the time being, the municipal affairs department will give Rs 7 crore to replace the old water pipes,” said Rai.