SLBC works come to a grinding halt

LIFELINE TO FLUORIDE-HIT PEOPLE

Hyderabad: The lifeline to the fluoride - affected people in Nalgonda district - SLBC (Srisailam Left Bank Canal) tunnel project’ works have come to a grinding halt for the past eight months.

Coined as the world’s largest tunnel, the project has been conceived in 2005 and the works began in 2008 in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. The government led by late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy conceived the project to ensure a permanent solution for the 500 fluoride- hit villages in Nalgonda district. It was estimated that it would carry 4,000 cusecs of water through two tunnels of 50.75 km in Nalgonda district. The project was originally scheduled to be completed by 2011.

According to officials, almost 60 per cent of the works were completed and remaining 40 per cent works which included digging tunnels and construction of balancing reservoir at Udayasamudram as part of lift irrigation scheme was still pending. They said under Tunnel-1 spanning 43.9 km works had been completed on a 30 km stretch. The works on tunnel -2 on 7 km stretch were yet to completed.

Officials say that the works had been stopped as part of re-engineering of irrigation projects. Cost escalation was yet to be approved by the government, the officials said.

Sources said that contractors had stopped the works at the project site eight months ago. The officials of the Irrigation Department said that the contractors P Associates and Robbins Inc, the US firm that was given the work of tunnel excavation by JP, had been demanding payment of the pending bills amounting to Rs 700 crore and also insisted on revising the estimations in view of increased cost of construction material and manpower in last 10 years. The project cost was estimated to be Rs 2,850 crore at the time of awarding works to the contractors. The contractors were also demanding that Rs 700 crore more be added to the original estimates towards price adjustment.

This issue assumed political connotations as the TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao alleged that the Andhra leaders had done great injustice to the region by delaying the project works. He vowed to ensure that the project was completed within six months of coming to power.

According to CPI (M) senior leader Julakanti Ranga Reddy, who visited the project site recently, the State government had ‘deliberately’ stalled the project works by not releasing funds to the contractors under the guise of escalation of the cost.

He said the issue was discussed at a meeting held by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in November last year but no decision was taken with regard to the price escalation and clearance of the bills so far, resulting in the contractors abandoning the works.