LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has started the second innings of the Lucknow Sewerage Yojana
under the Centre’s flagship scheme Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission. has started the second innings of the Lucknow Sewerage
Yojana under the Centre’s flagship scheme Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission. As a result, residents of Aliganj, Mahanagar and
Gomtinagar area who had long been struggling with half-dug roads, dusty
atmosphere and heavy traffic jams may expect some relief, where a major
portion of the work has been completed.

The construction work
is in full swing along the entire stretch of Shaheed Path from Gwari
Gaon sewage pumping station up to Faizabad Road. The other area, which
is to be covered, is from Vikasnagar till Police Wireless Crossing in
the first phase. Work had already started around a month back from
Vikasnagar Crossing to Rahimnagar Crossing and is nearing completion.

Faizabad Road, Gomtinagar, Matiyari Crossing and adjoining areas fall
under ‘Sewerage Yojana district 3 part II’. Under this plan, all areas
were to be linked through sewer pipelines, so that the sewage could
directly flow to Gwari pumping station from where it could be directed
to Bharwara Treatment Plant. This requires laying around 352 kilometres
of underground sewer pipeline, out of which 188 kilometres has already
been completed.

Work had already started in 2011, but had to be
discontinued after 3-4 months due to shortage of funds. Sources said
that the money was lying with Nagar Nigam for quite some time, but since
the authorities wanted to first get the work quality checked by a team
from IIT, the work got delayed. As a result, only 500-metre stretch from
pumping station up to Jeevan Plaza in Viramkhand-5 of Gomtinagar could
be covered with sewerage network in 2011.

An LMC
official said, “In 2011, Rs 214 crore had been sanctioned for this, out
of which Rs 150 crore has been released to us till date. In 2011, our
work stopped due to crunch of funds, but thankfully, authorities have
disbursed Rs 57 crore for our area in December 2012.” He said that
laying of sewer pipelines along Shaheed Path in probability would be
completed by June this year.

After Shaheed Path, sewer lines
would be installed underground at North Eastern railway line in
Gomtinagar, Visheshkhand, Vikrantkhand, Faizabad Road up to Matiyari
Crossing. The plan should be complete by March 2014, if the remaining
grant of Rs 64 crore is released in time unlike before. Sinha admits
that almost 50% of work has been already completed.

There is
also a plan to divert sewage of certain areas like Shaktinagar, Sanjay
Gandhi Puram, Ravindrapalli etc near Kukrail Nullah to an intermediate
Faizabad pumping station and then to Kukrail pumping station before
sending it to Gwari Gaon.

Similarly in Vikasnagar, sewerage
work up to Rahimnagar Crossing would be complete within 3-4 days. LMC
would then start laying pipes from Rahimnagar till Police Wireless
Crossing. This portion comes under ‘Sewerage Yojna district 3 part I’
and covers adjoining areas like Triveninagar, Faizullaganj, Daliganj,
Kalyanpur, Niralanagar, Janakipuram, Mahanagar, Khurramnagar, Paper Mill
colony, Mankameshwar ward, Badshanagar etc. The project includes laying
of 506 kms of sewer pipeline in these areas.

Till date,
approximately Rs 344 crore have been sanctioned for this plan, out of
which around Rs 262 crore have been released. The construction work had
started in September 2009, which continued till November 2011. This
phase completed laying of around 410 kilometres of sewer pipelines. In
this phase, sewer lines were put underground from Wireless Crossing till
Classic Crossing and then towards Carmel High School. The stretch was
then taken along Kukrail nullah across Faizabad Road up to Badshahnagar
Colony.

Officials confirmed that sewerage work from Rahimnagar
Crossing up to Wireless Crossing would take roughly one-and-half months.
Then sewer lines would be laid down from Badshahnagar Colony up to
railway line and then connected to Kukrail pumping station.

Elaborating on this, a LMC official said, “The work got delayed for more
than a year partially due to lack of funds and primarily due to the
disputed land area that falls under army territory. We need to lay about
400 metres of pipeline in this area. We have already written letters to
army headquarters regarding this matter.”

Sources told that
the army authorities have send their recommendations to the GOI and the
matter should take another 15-20 days to get solved. This plan has got a
fresh release of Rs 28 crore in the beginning of January.