Nellore Municipal Corporation wary over Hudco loan
It will be burden even though there is scope for hiking revenues
Nellore: Authorities of Nellore Municipal Corporation (NMC) are wary over borrowing loan of Rs 1,202 crore from Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) for un-derground drainage and water supply improvement in NMC in view of huge repayment burden for the fund starved NMC.
Based on a detailed project report (DPR) submitted by the NMC, the state government gave its nod to the proposal and agreed to provide 10 per cent share and counter guarantee for the loan to Hudco at the instance of urban development minister Dr P. Narayana sometime ago.
As per the detailed project report, the NMC sought Rs 505.00 crore for the water supply improvement scheme and Rs 700 crore for the underground drainage scheme.
The schemes have been designed to serve a population of 8,56,328 by 2045 (ultimate year) from present 5,05,751.
In case of drinking water supply development scheme, 130 million litres per day (MLD) water has to be drawn from Sangam anicut through a pipeline to address the water needs of the city.
In all, pipelines have to be laid to a length of 606 km for the distribution network and the maintenance and operation cost is estimated at Rs 35.52 crore per annum. House service connections can be given to as many as 1,00,000 dwellings on co-mpletion of the project.
With respect to underground drainage scheme, the number of connections that can be given from the year 2019 to 2045 are 48,410 to 1,64,035 from year 2019 to 2045 respectively. The annual maintenance and operation cost for the scheme has been put at Rs 15.19 crore.
Nellore mayor Sheik Abdul Azeez said that servicing the Hudco loan is beyond the capacity of NMC while pointing to the present annual revenue of Rs 50 crore.
Notwithstanding the re-payment schedule ranging from 15 to 20 years, it will be a major burden for us even though there is scope for increasing the revenues after the schemes are ready, Mr Azeez maintained.