Artificial lake, Jammu Gondola to miss deadlines of March 2018: DB

Status reports expose tall claims of Govt on vital projects

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 13: Notwithstanding the tall claims of the PDP-BJP Coalition Government about paying full attention towards vital projects of winter capital, artificial lake and Jammu ropeway projects are all set to miss the deadlines of March 2018. Astonishingly, new timelines have not been fixed by the Government for the completion of these projects of immense importance from tourism promotion point of view.
This came to the fore from the status reports submitted by the Irrigation and Flood Control and Tourism Departments before the Division Bench of State High Court in compliance to the directions issued on November 15, 2017 in the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) titled Inderjeet Khajuria Versus State of J&K and Others and Ashish Sharma Versus State of J&K and Others.
As far as artificial lake is concerned, it was submitted before the Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar few days back that as per the original time-frame the work on auto-mechanically operated gated barrage on River Tawi on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis was to be completed by M/s GVR Infra Project Ltd, Hyderabad in August 2012.
However, due to the slow pace of work adopted by the contractor the project was delayed beyond the scheduled date of completion-August 2012, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department said in the status report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, adding the department served a number of notices to the contractor for increasing the pace of work but the firm continued the slow pace of work and at times abandoned the work midway.
The final notice was served on March 31, 2017 and in response to the same the contractor submitted that the company was facing severe financial crunch and now they have managed to seek loan from the bank at Chennai, the status report said while disclosing that the major balance works which are yet to be completed are glacis, RCC bearing coat down-stream of barrage, guide wall up-stream of barrage and down-stream of right bank of Nikki Tawi, divide wall down-stream of barrage, cistern body including cut off walls at places and lowering of 20 gates in Nikki Tawi.
“As on date 85% of the work stands completed and work is not in progress at present despite the fact that contractor has been notified from time to time to resume the work”, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department submitted before the DB through Deputy Advocate General Ranjit Singh Jamwal, adding “barrage is only one of the components for creation of artificial lake on River Tawi and other components like construction of embankments, diversion of nullahs/drainage system flowing into River Tawi are yet to be executed by other departments”.
After going through the status report and hearing Deputy AG for the Irrigation and Flood Control Department and Advocate Meenakshi Salathia for the PIL titled Inderjeet Khajuria Versus State of J&K and Others, the DB observed, “it appears that 85% work of the barrage at Nikki Tawi and Baddi Tawi has been completed and the gates are to be installed”, adding “it seems that there are grim chances of meeting the deadline of March 2018 as claimed by the counsel appearing for the department”.
As far as gondola project from Mubarak Mandi complex to Bahu Fort is concerned, the DB was apprised by Government Advocate Ahatsham Bhat appearing for the Tourism Department that work on both the sections-Peerkho to Mahamaya and Mahamaya to Bahu Fort was going on at the required pace and work on several components has already been completed.
However, the DB after going through the project report and hearing counsel for the PIL Advocate Meenakshi Slathia observed, “as per the original place the expected date of completion is March 2018 but on the face of the record it doesn’t appear to be possible to complete the project by then”.
The DB directed the counsel appearing for the Tourism Department to file a detailed status report indicating the exact date on which it is expected to be completed and how much of the work remains to be done.
As per the details, which were placed before the DB and the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, 50% work on restaurant at Mahamaya is still pending and work for construction of restaurant at Peerkho Station has only been e-tendered. Moreover, the process of acquisition of land measuring 5 kanals and 17 marlas at Peerkho for construction of approach road is yet to be completed.
“The land measuring 9 kanals at Bahu Station for construction of parking area and other allied works was handed over by the office of Collector Land Acquisition Jammu to Cable Car Corporation only few months back”, the report said, “Power Development Department has yet not completed the work on the shifting/undergrounding of the power lines and creation of electric sub-stations”.
Moreover, ropes and cabins have yet not reached Jammu. “The supply order for ropes has been placed with Austria company while as Letter of Credit for supply of cabins from Switzerland company has recently been opened”, read the report.
As far as sewerage project is concerned, both the executing agencies-National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) failed to furnish the details despite the fact that on November 15, 2017 the DB had explicitly directed these agencies to submit status report indicating the extent of the work completed as also the dates on which the entire work would be completed.
“The status report shall clearly indicate as to whether the entire city has been connected to the underground sewerage network or not, and to what extent and which portions of the city have been left out, if any”, the DB had directed.
Keeping in view the importance of the project, the DB has granted only two days to the Senior Additional Advocate General S S Nanda for submission of the status report. Now, this case will come up for hearing on December 15, 2017.

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