Bhubaneswar: The state Water Resources department has urged the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to take measures to complete the much awaited Kanupur irrigation project in Keonjhar district.
According to Water Resources department sources, the dam and spillway works of the irrigation project are almost complete except the river gap portion. River closing is a vital activity for impounding the reservoir and this has been inordinately delayed due to delay in the construction of bridge over the spill channel of Kanupur irrigation project by NHAI, official sources said here Saturday.
Despite repeated reminders, the NHAI is not showing any interest to take up the bridge work, which is resulting cost overrun.
Water Resources secretary Anu Garg has recently written to NHAI chairman urging the later to take appropriate action for early completion of the bridge.
NHAI was supposed to execute the four-lane bridge project over Kanupur spill channel at 173.325 km of Rimuli-Roxy-Rajamunda section of NH-215 (new NH-520). However, it failed to take up the work after several meetings and correspondence at different levels. Therefore, the construction of the bridge came under the purview of Kanupur Project Authority after obtaining the consent of NHAI.
Accordingly, the project authority started the work for the tendered cost of Rs 40.68 crore of which NHAI agreed to bear 80 per cent. But, later on, the cost of the bridge was revised to Rs 100.53 crore due to change in its design because of underground geological conditions; and this matter was brought to the knowledge of NHAI. As the NHAI didn’t agree to bear their share of 80 per cent of the revised cost, the work came to a halt.
In order to resolve the issue, the then Water Resources secretary had held a meeting with NHAI chairman in March 2019 at New Delhi. The secretary stated in the meeting that since NHAI remained firm in bearing 80 per cent of the initial cost of Rs 40.68 crore, the work undertaken by state government was terminated.
The then secretary requested the NHAI chairman to take up the work at their level and assured that state government is ready to bear the committed 20 per cent of the original design cost.
The bridge work was, however, has been suspended since August 2019. Even though more than one year has elapsed, the NHAI neither started the work nor communicated about the plan, programme and implementation of the bridge despite several correspondences.
The project was conceived 40 years ago and three chief ministers have laid its foundation on different occasions. The project, once functional, will facilitate irrigation to around 30,000 ha land spread over five blocks of the district. It will also help controlling flood in Anandapur area of Keonjhar, Jajpur and Bhadrak districts.