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Faulty project gives a Rs3.5-cr blow to KMC

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:45 administrator
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Indian Express 3.11.2009

Faulty project gives a Rs3.5-cr blow to KMC

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has to bear an additional financial burden of Rs 3.5 crore for the ongoing sewer work under the JNNURM scheme at the Samsul Hooda Road due to the fault of its own engineers and the contractor it had employed for the project.

In the first place, the design that the KMC engineers had prepared proved to be technically wrong when 30 per cent of the work had already been completed. Then it was found that the method the contractor was using for the Rs 30-crore underground sewer line project was also not right.

Now, the project is being planned afresh. According to a senior official of the finance and accounts department of the KMC, the project was initially stopped by the department “due to some discrepancies in the credentials of the contractor who had been awarded the contract”. But the planning and development department, which is executing the project, did not pay any heed.

According to KMC sources, the contractor who had been awarded the contract did not have any experience of executing an underground sewer-line laying project using trenchless method. This, despite the terms and conditions of the JNNURM scheme clearly stating that the contractor, who is awarded a project, must have an experience of executing at least one similar kind of a project.

An official of the planning and development department of the civic body said around 200 metres of Samsul Hooda Road were to be cleaned up under the project. As per the trenchless method, machines are used for cleaning up and desilting the sewer lines. “After the contractor told us that they have lost access of the sewer line, we found that several sewer lines from different areas converged in the area and there was a continuous flow of water. The contractor could not drain out the water from the other sewer lines,” said an engineer of the KMC. We asked the contractor to dig trial trenches and go ahead with the project. But they asked for extra money to dig trial trenches as according to them, the civic engineers had designed the project plan, which has been found faulty. About Rs 3.5 crore have been invested in the project by the contractors,” said a senior official.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:47
 

Thane civic body to use digital photography for tree census

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:28 administrator
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Indian Express 3.11.2009

Thane civic body to use digital photography for tree census

After stiff opposition from activists, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has scrapped its ambitious project of conducting the tree census through Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Information System (GIS). Instead, it is now planning to opt for the manual census done with the help of digital photography.

“There were some objections raised by a section of people due to the cost factor. They had suggested us to check the census conducted by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). A report would be submitted accordingly to the TMC commissioner,” said Dr Sudhir Bhatankar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner of the TMC.

Tree census is done every five years and the last time the TMC conducted the census was in 2002-2003 and recorded around 3 lakh tress. The last manual census was done at a cost of Rs 2.5 per tree and the entire project cost came down to just Rs 9 lakh. After much postponement, the TMC decided to conduct a tree census in the city this year. Accordingly, the TMC floated tenders for conducting the census.

“The tender was awarded to a Mumbai-based company and it was said it would use modern technology to count trees in Thane. The company had quoted a price of Rs 25 per tree and the entire project was to cost Rs 1.25 crore,” said Pradeep Indulkar from JAAG, the organisation which opposed the move.

“Cost factor was not the only issue here. There were many other issues like the data of earlier census was not being used in the present census.”

Similar type of counting with the help of GPS and GIS was also done in Badlapur and Ambernath.

JAAG also suggested the TMC to check the Pune model of tree census. The Pune Municipal Corporation had conducted tree census with the help of digital photography. “The project cost for the PMC was Rs 2.5 per tree as compared to Rs 25 per tree with the help of GPS,” said Indulkar.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based agency, which was awarded the contract, has already completed 30 per cent of the work. “They have counted some 30 percent of the trees and it would cost us around Rs 25-30 lakh,” added Bhatanakar.

“The use of modern technology is welcome, but the cost is mind boggling when you have other effective means to conduct the census. It would have set a bad precedent as other urban local bodies and municipal corporations too would have followed the suit,” Indulkar added.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 November 2009 11:33
 

PCMC opens 2 new free parking lots

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 10:07 administrator
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The Times of India 03.11.2009

PCMC opens 2 new free parking lots

TNN 3 November 2009, 07:08am IST

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has developed two new free parking lots for shoppers and residents of the township. The parking lots are located near the highway stretch at Pimpri and Chinchwad.

Speaking to TOI, Ashish Sharma, municipal commissioner, PCMC said that the parking lots would have green and yellow stripes so that people could identify them.

One of the new free parking lots is off the Pune-Mumbai highway along the road from Ahilyabai Holkar chowk, Morwadi in Pimpri to the Indira Gandhi flyover. It is at the open triangular space behind Kamala Crossroads. Officials from the PCMC engineering department said that the PCMC owns half the space which can accommodate 150 cars or 450 two-wheelers.

The other parking lot is near D Mart shopping mall along the Mumbai-Pune highway in Chinchwad. It has a parking space sufficient for 50 cars or 150 four-wheelers.

Speaking to TOI, Aniket Jadhav, a shopper from Chinchwad said, "This area never used to have an authorised parking place. Everyone would park their vehicles along the highway and get fined by the traffic police for doing so. The free parking has come as a welcome respite,"

According to Ashish Mane, a resident of Bhosari, "A large number of commercial and shopping complexes have come up in the past few years along the highway. Since they have no parking space, the new parking lots will help people who come to these complexes."

Earlier, the PCMC had created two parking lots along the Pune-Mumbai highway. These are located near Kamala Crossroads in Pimpri and near Big Bazaar in Chinchwad. The parking lot along the highway near Kamala Crossroads has parking space for 50 cars and 50 two-wheelers. The parking lot along the highway near Big Bazaar has space for 40 cars and 50 two-wheelers.

 
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