Panel formed to speed up sewage projects

BHUBANESWAR: Even as sewerage and drainage projects of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar planned under the Integrated Sanitation Improvement Programme, are scheduled to be completed in two years, the work is very sluggish. Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik reviewed the progress of the externally- aided projects at a high-level meeting here recently. The meeting revealed that detailed engineering plan had been completed and there was no requirement of additional land for the projects. Project clearance from different Government agencies is being obtained. Meanwhile, a sub-committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, with chief engineers of Railways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Public Works Department and Water Resources Department as members. The sub-committee will work for project clearances in the matters of railway crossings, national highway and canal and road crossings in the project areas. It has been decided that three project monitoring units (PMUs) __ two in Cuttack and one in Bhubaneswar __ will be set up for smooth and timely execution of the projects. The infrastructure projects have been revised both in terms of coverage and budget estimate. The sewer length, which was originally planned for 98 km under Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, has been increased to 236 km. Similarly, the length of sewers for Cuttack has been enhanced to 375 km from the initial plan 241 km.  As per revised plan, the projects in the Twin Cities will be constructed in two phases. In phase-I, Cuttack will have 241 km of sewers with two sewerage treatment plants (STP) and in phase-II, there will be 134 km of sewers.   Similarly, Bhubaneswar in phase-I will have 100 km of sewers with one STP and in phase-II, 136 km of sewers with another STP. The cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 945 crore which will be sourced from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) __ loan of Rs 756.36 crore and State share of Rs 188.77 crore.  The soft loan will be repaid in 40 years at an interest rate of 0.75 per cent with a  10-year moratorium.    The Chief Secretary advised the Housing and Urban Development Department to construct each phase independently so that phase-I becomes functional even before completion of the phase-II.