Work on Kadapa underground drainage at snail's pace

Kadapa: Lack of a proper drainage system remains for long as the curse of this city. Open drains in many areas lay blocked for months without rain water arriving and draining away the solid dumps.

A hope was the underground drainage system initiated by the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government but nothing much has happened for its completion over the past 12 years.

Not all hope is lost, though. The municipal health engineering department is now making a fresh bid to complete the unfinished work. The proposals submitted at an estimated cost of Rs 121 crore are still under the state government’s consideration. These works will start after administrative clearances are granted, say officials.

The officials say there existed Rs 94.35 crore in funds under the central Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in the hands of the civic body. The authorities here are waiting for release of the remaining Rs 36.65 crore from the state government to take the project forward.

The underground drainage system had been sanctioned for implementation in Kadapa in 2008, over a stretch of 351 km at an estimated cost of Rs 72 crore under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns Scheme (UIDSSMT). The Ramky Constructions started the work in 2008 and stopped its activities in 2013.

The agreement with the company was terminated in 2015 after several notices were issued to it.

The entire UGD system is bifurcated to four zones. Some 90 per cent of the works was completed in the third zone and 96 per cent of the work completed in the fourth zone.

Some 36 per cent of the works in the first zone and 29 per cent of the works in the second zone were completed. Out of the 351km stretch of pipelines, work on a 285.65km stretch was completed.

Of the 11,340 manholes, work on 10,915 was completed. Out of the 13,350 inspection chambers, work on only 12,495 was completed. The project started with an estimated spend of Rs 72 crore in the beginning later saw a revision to the order of Rs 108 crore.

Only one sewage treatment plant (STP) was constructed; at Nanapalle area over 16 acres of land with a capacity of 20 million litres per day. This was done under the open STP system.

Another STP was proposed at Gudur area. There, the corporation purchased 2.5 acres of land from farmers.

Recently, the municipal health department engineers and officials made a new proposal to set up the second sewage treatment plant at Nanapalli area, over 16 acres of area. This is a natural form of STP and hence required a high volume of land. Now, the government is proposing to make it a sewage treatment plant in technical mode. Hence only 2.5 acres of land is required to construct a sewage treatment plant.

Zone One covers Balajinagar, Akkayapalle, Rabindranath, Mariapuram and the Buildup. Zone 2 includes Dwarakanagar, Rajareddy Colony, Old Bus Stand, BKM Street, One Town Area. Zone three includes the Cooperative Colony, the NGO Colony, the Omshantinagar, Prakashnagar, Shankarapuram and Ashok Nagar.

Zone four includes Ramanjaneyapuram, the central jail, the RTC Colony and the YSR Police Colony. A big problem is that, through almost all the city limits, the roads were penetrated with the drainage system. This would mean a lot of road repair after the new system is introduced. The municipal authorities did not include a fund provision for re-construction of roads in the earlier proposal. This, officials now say, has turned into a big curse on the people here.

Municipal health executive engineer Chenna Kesava Reddy and DEE Buduru Satish Kumar told Deccan Chronicle that they have sent proposals to the government to complete the pending works. “With advise from deputy chief minister SB Amjad Basha, we have proposed the second STP also at the Nanapalli area with complete technical advancement,” they said.

They said these proposals were now with the government and awaiting administrative sanctions. “We already have had Rs 94.35 crore from AMRUT funds and the remaining amount Rs 35.65 crore has to be sanctioned by the government,” they added.