Department of Irrigation and Flood Control has asked a Kolkata based firm dealing in dredging to pack up and call it a day as it has failed to meet the deadline of March 31 this year in dredging work carried out in River Jehlum. Only 75 percentof the dredging work wasfound complete till March 31 this year. Now fresh tenders would be floated for the rest of the work (25 percent). New estimates will be taken up for the pending work as per the Chief Engineer I&FC.
It is reported that the project would have been completed but the water level of the river remained low for the last two years which hindered the process.The most critical and important part of the project was the construction of embankments on the flood spill channel which has been already completed.
We fail to understand that just for 25 percent remaining work, fresh exercise of floating tenders, estimates preparing, cost analysis etc has to be undertaken for which at least six months are required, looking to the average pace with which works are done. It would have been prudent to grant another six months to the same firm to do the remaining 25 percent of the work. This, we are afraid to say looking to each and every project in the State very rarely meeting the deadline and generally more time is granted and new timelines fixed. Looking to those norms another three to six months additionally given to the dredging firm would have been wiser.
Anyway, let it be hoped that after the Kolkota firm anyhow failed to meet the deadline and now is ordered to wind up, new arrangements must be speedily done to have this historically famous river gracefully flowing through Kashmir valley cleansed of the silt and the remaining work completed with zeal and full gusto.
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