1st project under AMRUT in limbo

Our Correspondent
Abohar, November 18

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The initial work that the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB) started under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Yojana at Thakur Abadi here two years ago has not been completed so far.

Contractors had reportedly been busy with other major work allotted to them in connection with the Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur corridor project, sources said.

The scheme was inaugurated by then Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on October 27, 2017, in the presence of PPCC president Sunil Jakhar.

Under the scheme, Rs 92.1 crore was earmarked for a sewerage system and Rs 27.06 crore for drinking water supply. A sum of Rs 44.44 crore had been provided for maintenance works for a decade.

The minister had directed the PWSSB to complete the first phase of the scheme in 18 months, but the work was delayed citing one or the other reason. The delay forced several businessmen to shut their shops on both sides of the road and residents were without water supply for a year, residents Surinder, Raman and Sandeep rued.

In August, when hundreds of affected people sat on a dharna and blocked traffic near a railway overbridge on the state highway, PWSSB officials had said the road would be ready by October 31. “Now they claim that spells of rain had affected the work, stone metal will be laid within three weeks and bitumen carpeting can be expected by February. In street no.6 in Sidhu Nagari, the municipal council had launched laying of pipes to ensure smooth disposal of wastewater and construction of screening chambers, but residents say the contractor left the work halfway and it was risky for about 20 families to pass through the street,” they said.

PWSSB officials said the work was likely to be resumed in a week or so.