The Times Oof India         22.11.2010

Gurgaon administration sits on sewage plan

 GURGAON: The lack of a functional sewage disposal line has plagued the city for years now, and it has already been close to two years since the new master sewer line project of the Public Health Department began. But it seems that the cause for delay was not just red tape, but the Gurgaon administrations active interference in the project, so as to bring it as per its own requirements.

According to a senior official of the Public Health Department, HUDA used its clout to divert the original path of the sewer line to run it parallel to its existing and dilapidated sewer lines, in order to save costs and resources.

The official said that the master sewer line, as per the original plan, would have been finished by March this year, but for HUDAs insistence. We tried to resist it, because it meant we had to rework the blueprint in order to suit HUDAs needs. But we had to go with it after orders came from Chandigarh, the official told TOI, on condition of anonymity.

The original master sewer line was to begin at the Basai Road, near the crematorium, and would have gone toward Pataudi Chowk. But HUDA wanted us to go all the way to the beginning of Basai road, to Basai Chowk and turn right from there, just next to where its own dysfunctional master line lies, he said.

Apart from the diversion, the capacity of the line was also demanded to be changed from 900mm to 1,800 mm. The new master line project is slated to be completed by March next year. And now that the new line will fall close to HUDAs old one, diverting the sewage line from the old to new would not be much of a hassle. But this shouldnt have been done in this way. We were on a schedule, we had a timeline to follow. The money had been taken on loan from Japan Bank of International Corporation, said the official.

The budget, which was earlier Rs 6.32 crore, was raised to more than a 100 per cent of the original, at Rs 13 crore, at the last minute. About Rs 6 crore of the extra amount, the official said, has still not been paid to the Public Health Department by HUDA, at a time when the contractors are demanding their money.

HUDAs existing master sewer line has been in place for the last 15 years, and has been in a bad shape ever since. HUDA administrator Nitin Yadav said that it was because of the limited capacity of the main line, and the surplus sewage coming from the nearby colonies, that their sewer lines have not been functioning properly. Besides, these lines are very old. So, once the master sewer line is laid, we will divert our sewage to this, which should solve the problems, said Yadav. Contrary to the Public Health Departments claims, Yadav also said that a sum of Rs 10 crore has been paid to the department for the new line.