BHUBANESWAR: As the fear of urban flooding keeps Bhubaneswarites on the edge ahead of the monsoon, the role of Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB) to improve the flawed drainage system of the City has come under scanner.
The state capital, which won the tag of number one Smart City in 2016 and has a population of over one million, surprisingly doesn’t have a mechanised and integrated wastewater disposal system.
In absence of an integrated sewerage system, millions of litre of wastewater generated in the city every day are directly discharged into the stormwater drains.
Things become worse in monsoon when these drains start overflowing due to excessive rainfall.
While residential colonies in low-lying areas of the city get inundated, the contaminated water leads to serious health hazards.
However, neither the Housing and Urban Development department nor the OWSSB seems to be concerned about the issue.
An incomplete sewerage project, which was conceived way back in 2004 to address this problem, bears testimony to the Government apathy and administrative high-handedness towards civic issues.
Sources said the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee had prepared a detailed project report for development of a scientific integrated sewerage system in the city in 2004-05.
Accordingly, it was decided to create a network of sewer lines stretching over 200 km and construct six sewer treatment plants. To execute the project, the city was divided into six sewerage districts.
The State Government rescinded the contract of East Coast Construction Industries Limited to execute the project in 2015 and the OWSSB started implementing it in five sewerage districts (I to V) through three private firms - Laxmi Construction, Iron Triangle and IVRCL - under AMRUT, erstwhile JNNURM.
The work for sewerage district VI was taken up by Tata Projects utilising JICA funds.
Sources in OWSSB said the project, which is currently facing issues of clearances and land acquisition hurdle, has not even crossed the halfway mark of completion in the last 12 years.
The delay has also resulted in cost escalation of the project. While the estimated cost of the project was around Rs 754.23 crore in 2007, now over Rs 1,500 crore is required for its implementation.
“Out of around 220 km sewer network, pipelines have been laid only along 100 km across the city.
The work of sewerage district V (Kalarahanga and nearby rural areas) is yet to start,” said an OWSSB official.
He further said only around 50 per cent work of the project has been completed so far and it will take at least two more years to lay all sewer lines.
OWSSB Project Engineer BC Dalai, however, said efforts are on to complete the sewerage project within the 2020 deadline.