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Underground drainage work to start after SEC nod

Monday, 15 March 2010 09:56 administrator
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The New Indian Express 15.03.2010

Underground drainage work to start after SEC nod

N R Madhusudhan


BANGALORE: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) will seek the election commission’s permit to start working on the Rs 500 crore project of laying new underground drainage (UGD) lines.

“This project was pending due to various reasons and had to reinvite tenders. We will go ahead with the project if the election commission permits us to do so,” said PB Ramamurthy, Chairman, BWSSB.

The BWSSB proposes to lay UGD lines in newly added areas of the city, making for 24 packages in total.

Of them, work has started on nine packages approved by the World Bank. The Bank is expected to approve 10 other packages in the next few days, following which the BWSSB is planning to request the State Election Commission to permit it to start tendering process. The BWSSB is still in the process of re-tendering the works related to five packages.

The works are jointly funded by the World Bank and JNNURM.

As per the plans, the BWSSB will lay the UGDs in the newly added areas of the city and divert the sewage generated in the these areas to the nearest sewage valley it maintains.

The four major sewage valleys of the city are in Koramangala, Challaghatta, Vrishabavathi and Hebbal.

The BWSSB will lay 2,000 kms of lateral UGDs and 300 kms of main and sub-main UGDs as per the plan.

The 10 packages in question are for laying UGD lines in Krishnarajapuram, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Byatrayanpura, Dasarahalli and Mahadevpura.

Last Updated on Monday, 15 March 2010 10:05
 

Civic body passes budget, mud-slinging begins

Friday, 12 March 2010 10:43 administrator
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Indian Express 12.03.2010

Civic body passes budget, mud-slinging begins

Express News Service Tags : Civic, budget, corporation Posted: Friday , Mar 12, 2010 at 0147 hrs

Pune: Following an eleven-hour discussion on the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) 2010-11 budget, the civic general body passed the budget late in the evening on Wednesday. The budget came with a number of corporators criticising the civic administration for its way of functioning and delay in implementing development projects for the city.

"Though PMC boasted of being the first municipal corporation to prepare a gender budget, it did not come into reality. It is shameful that there is no sufficient public urinals in the city for women," Shiv Sena leader in PMC Shyam Deshpande said.

He said the civic administration failed to take steps eliminate the slums. We had proposed for a slum rehabilitation plan, which is yet to see the light of the day. The ruling parties are not making enough for it and have no control over the civic administration," Deshpande said.

BJP corporator Anil Shirole brought a number of issues to the fore, ranging from water leakage, footpaths, Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), etc

"The civic administration proposes hundreds of projects every year, which either fail to take off or left unfinished. The administration put up a proposal for 24x7 water supply and also proposed to appoint consultants for the same. But in reality, the administration has failed to stop the water leakage," he said.

Corporator Ujjwal Keskar asked the civic administration how it would repay the citizens in return of the proposed 11 per cent tax hike.

Last Updated on Friday, 12 March 2010 10:46
 

Want to jog by a drain?

Friday, 12 March 2010 07:12 administrator
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Hindustan Times 12.03.2010

Want to jog by a drain?

The municipal corporation wants Mumbai to go the Singapore way and have cycling and jogging tracks along its drains.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Standing Committee, the body that takes policy decisions and plans the funding of city projects, has suggested that jogging and cycling tracks be built along open drains.

Standing Committee Chairman and Sena leader, Ravindra Waikar, during his budget proposals speech on Tuesday, said, “An area of 10 feet x10 feet will be left open along drains and cycling and jogging tracks can be comfortably developed there.”

Waikar says this will ensure land is used in a planned way and will also keep encroachers away.

Mumbai has a drainage system, which is more than 100 years old, consists 2,000 km of open drains and 440 km of closed drains. Slums encroach upon areas around the drains. This makes it difficult for the BMC to access these drains for maintenance and de-silting.

Singapore has developed jogging and cycling tracks as a part of their balanced land use programme. Their guidelines say jogging tracks should be wide enough for two people to walk comfortably, hand-in-hand.

The BMC’s budget for this year has proposed to develop a cycle track along Irla nullah by building a 2-metre wide pathway with coloured paver blocks. The corporation has made a provision of Rs 2 crore for the project.

BMC officials said the proposed cycling and jogging tracks will have be sturdy enough to be able to take the weight of the heavy de-silting machines that the corporation uses to clean the drains.

A civic official requesting anonymity said implementing the proposal would require detailed planning.

The corporation ruled out the possibility of stench from open drains putting people off.

“It is too early to comment about this but drains usually do not stink because they are always in touch with oxygen,” said an officer requesting anonymity.

“The stench begins when the water in a drain starts stagnating. But we’ll carry out de-silting regularly and ensure the water does not stagnate.”

Last Updated on Friday, 12 March 2010 07:17
 
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