Only Rs 26 lakh recovered from Triveni for slow work

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 27

The Sewerage Board has imposed a penalty of Rs 7 crore on Triveni Company for working at a slow pace.

The company has been allotted the Rs 288-crore project for 100 per cent sewerage maintenance and water supply in the city. The company has been accused of executing poorly its work under the project.

Of the total Rs 7 crore, the board has been able to recover only Rs 26 lakh as penalty from the company and that is also by cutting the payment of the company.

The civic body has hired the Noida-based company to provide basic civic amenities to residents. The company has the responsibility to improve water supply and sewerage connections in the city. The company has reportedly done only 22 per cent of its work in 22 months.

In the agreement done with the company, it is stated that despite imposing five per cent penalty, the Sewerage Board can impose 2.5 per cent fine of the Rs 288-crore project on the company if it fails to finish the work on time.

However, terming the penalty imposed on it as unconstitutional, the company had registered its protest with officials of the Sewerage Board.

The company has claimed it has completed 80 per cent of the total work given by the Sewerage Board.

The Sewerage Board has also stated that the company was doing the work on its own. It is doing other work leaving the work assigned by the board.

VB Shivangi, DGM, Triveni Company, said, “The Sewerage Board has not approved the drawing of some works, while on some other, it has not given work front under the project. The main work under the project is lying of 55 km sewerage across the Sirhind canal. Under this, 15-km long raising main pipeline was to be laid from Adarsh Nagar to Chandbhan drain, but so far it has not approved the drawings.”