Kurseong: Will CM inaugurate incomplete Balasan water project?

KURSEONG, 19 FEB.SNS: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the Rs 55-crore Balasan Drinking Water Project for Darjeeling town on 1 March.

Government officials say the project is almost complete; in reality the project is far from over, said officials, who do not want to be named.

According to sources several important aspects of the project are yet to be taken up, mainly the laying of pipes. Since the areas where the pipelines must pass through fall under various departments, including the National Highway Authority of India, Forest Department, the Army and individual properties, the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) must be obtained before carrying out any work.

In reality, the NOC from the Army and individual property owners are yet to be obtained.

Under such circumstances the people of Darjeeling are not happy about the proposed programme.

“I am not concerned about the programme as even after the inauguration the people here would not be benefited as the project itself is incomplete,” said Mr Bhusan Chettri, a resident of Darjeeling.

However, the construction DGM from Ramkey Infrastructure Ltd., Mr Subrato Kar, said that the whole project was divided into two phases and the project work of one phase has already been completed.

He said that under the first phase of the project water from the Balasun river would be pumped to Sinchal Lake, the work for which has been completed.

According to Mr Kar, at present the water level of the Sinchal Lake has decreased, hence after its proposed inauguration, water from the Balasun river will be pumped into Sinchal Lake from where the water will be distributed in Darjeeling.

However, sources said that the infrastructure to start pumping water to Sinchal lake from the Balasun river has not been completed yet as pipelines have yet to be laid to take the water to the lake from the river. According to them at least another three months will be required for its completion.

However, regarding, Miss Banerjee's visit to the project site, Mr Kar said: “So far, we have no information regarding her visit and the inauguration of the project. He said it is the public health and engineering department that has a say on the issue”.

The plan was to pump water of the Balasun uphill to the Sinchal lake through pipelines. The water will then be filtered and distributed through newly-constructed pipelines from Sinchal to Darjeeling town via the St. Paul's School area.

The plan envisages that on an average each people residing in Darjeeling will get 70 litres of water per day the foundation stone for which was laid in 2005 by the then chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The project is being executed by the Ramky Infrastructure Ltd of Hyderabad.

-statesman news service