Rs 300-crore drainage work for Bangalore City

Rs 300-crore drainage work for Bangalore City

N R MadhusudhanExpress News ServiceFirst Published : 24 May 2010 05:37:02 AM ISTLast Updated : 24 May 2010 07:31:17 AM IST
BANGALORE: The World Bank has approved seven pending projects of laying underground drainage (UGD) lines in the newly-added areas of the city.
These packages, worth Rs 309 crore, are related to laying UGD lines in Bommanahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Dasarahalli CMCs. With this approval, all the 24 packages of laying UGD lines in the city have been approved.
The chairman of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), P B Ramamurthy, said the works would be allotted at the earliest as it would take 24 to 36 months to complete them. He said they would be issuing the tender notification soon and the last date for submitting the tenders would be June 25.
The World Bank had previously approved the project but it could not be implemented as only a few contractors had participated in the tendering due to the large amount of work. The project was later divided into 24 packages to enable the small contractors to participate in the tenders. It was then sent to the World Bank for approval. The World Bank had already approved 17 packages and the work related to them have been awarded to contractors.
The approval of the remaining seven packages was pending due to some technical reasons.
The delay in the approval of these packages might have cost the government Rs 150-200 crore.
The BWSSB had planned to lay 2,000 km of UGD lines and 300 km of lateral pipelines in newly-added CMCs and TMCs of the city as the existing UGD lines in these areas are old and incapable of bearing the load. Moreover, the existing UGD lines are polluting the areas as they are diverted to the nearby lakes and tanks. The purpose of this project is also to connect the UGD lines in these areas to the nearest sewage valley. The project was originally estimated to cost Rs 1,142 crore and is being implemented with funds from World Bank, JNNURM and State Government.