Mission Bhagiradha works at snail’s pace

Tandur:  Construction of water tanks, drinking water pipeline works taken up as part of the much publicized Mission Bhagiradha are going on at a snail’s pace.

It may be recalled that the works should be completed by December 31 last year so that the people would have no shortage of drinking water in the ongoing summer. The deadline has been extended to July-end as the works remained incomplete. But the people are skeptical whether the officials would be able to meet the deadline at all? 
Negligence on the part of contractors coupled with lapses in supervision on the part of the officials are making the execution of the project tardy. 

In fact, 15 major drinking water storage tanks are being built in the constituency. Also, 170 smaller tanks linking 192 villages are being built. Construction of tanks each with capacity of one lakh liters has been completed by 60 per cent. Tandur will get drinking water from the pump house being built at Parigi, the second biggest sump with a storage capacity of 4500 kilo liters. The pump house is the direct recipient of the drinking water discharged from Srisailam project. 

Against the required 600-km-long pipeline work, pipelines could be laid up to a distance of only 490 km. According to AE Praveen kumar, the Mission Bhagiradha works are going on at a cost of Rs 340 crore.  Construction of major tanks has been completed. Major works came to a head. A test drive will be run by July. Rural Water Supply Divisional Engineer Srinivas said that 107 small water storage tanks have been completed.