The Hindu 28.07.2010
Delay in completion of building project worries local body head
Staff Reporter
| Less than 40 per cent of Rs 65-lakh project over after nearly a year |
Photo: R. M. RAJARATHINAM 
Snail's pace : Construction work for the municipal office at Thuvakudi progressing slowly.
TIRUCHI: The Thuvakudi municipality authorities are not certain about getting the construction of its new administrative office completed by October as announced earlier.
Nearly a year after the project for construction of a spacious administrative complex at Rs. 65 lakh was sanctioned, less than 40 per cent of the work has been completed.
According to the chairperson of the Thuvakudi Municipality, E. Kayambu, there was little that the municipality could do about the delay. Cooperation from the contractor was not forthcoming, he said. The contractor appointed for the project was the one who constructed the buildings of the primary health centre in the town a few years ago. “Our hope that the contractor would display the same degree of promptness in executing the new project has been belied,” he said. After much struggle to obtain the land along the Tiruchi-Thanjavur national highway for its administrative office from SIDCO, and to evict encroachers, the tardy progress of the project was causing consternation to the authorities. The work order was given on October 22, 2009. The Government sanctioned Rs.15 lakh while the rest was mobilised from the general fund.
Till the local body was upgraded as a third-grade municipality about five years ago, the office was functioning from a small building that was hardly enough to accommodate the staff. The office was subsequently shifted to the base of an octagonal shaped overhead tank.
However, the office staff are eager to move to the permanent facility at the earliest since there has been a substantial increase in their number in the last few years.
