MARGAO
Strange it may seem, but true that while work on this overhead water tank, which began way back in 2011 under the JICA scheme, is dragging on for years now “ around six years to be precise -- with no signs of completion of work at the earliest.
What’s interesting to note is that the Monte water tank is one of the 28 water tanks taken up for construction across South Goa district under the JICA scheme. Sadly, senior JICA officials told The Goan that work on only 10 out of the 28 water tanks stands completed till date, with the contractor taking his own time in putting the balance tanks in place.
When The Goan team visited the construction site atop the Monte Hill, it found that the tank is not in place till date, six years after the tender was floated under the JICA scheme to improve water supply to the residents staying on the hillock, including parts of Borda and Pajifond locality.
PWD officials in private say that the non-completion of work on the 500 cubic metre overhead tank, has put pressure on the existing 150 cubic metre overhead tank, which has outlived its utility and has failed to meet the growing water requirements around the area. The situation has been further aggravated on account of low power voltage, especially after dusk, adversely affecting water pumping operations from dusk to dawn.
Given the situation, a senior PWD Water supply engineer has dashed off a letter to the higher ups, drawing attention to the water supply problem being faced in and around the Monte Hill area, due to the non-completion of work on the 500 cubic metre JICA tank. “Water problems faced by residents staying atop Monte Hill as well as parts of Borda and Pajifond would have been resolved if the JICA tank was commissioned by the agency,” remarked a PWD engineer.
When The Goan contacted, senior JICA official Karekar to shed light on the inordinate delay in the completion of the 500 cubic metre overhead tank at Monte Hill, he merely said the contractor from Hyderabad has been told to complete work on the project at the earliest. “It is a fact that the contractor has been executing the work at a very slow pace. He has not abandoned the work and my office has sent him the reminders to complete the work on a war footing,” Karekar said, while admitting that the work on the water tank had started way back in 2011.
The JICA official, however, could not set the time frame for the commissioning of the overhead water tank, only saying the work should be completed within the next few months.
Questions are being raised in PWD circles why the government has not stepped in to ensure the early commissioning of all the 28 water tanks, tendered under the JICA scheme in South, with only 10 tanks currently being
commissioned as per JICA
officials claim.
