MARGAO
Otherwise, consider this. Two state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants with C-Tech technology are presently underway at the PWD Sirvodem waste treatment plant complex. In the case of the Rs 42 crore 20 MLD plant, the ground reality stands like this. While work on the plant is incomplete, it’s now months since the underground sewer line network was laid and is awaiting commissioning.
On the other hand, the second STP, the 6.7 MLD plant, gives out an entirely different picture.
Though this plant has been awaiting commissioning for quite some time now, there’s no sign of the government replacing the damaged underground line which will carry sewage to this state of the art C-Tech plant.
Take the case of the Rs 42 crore C-Tech sewage plant under construction by the Goa Sewage Infrastructure Development Corporation. Inquiries have revealed that work on the STP is presently underway with the PWD setting December month as the deadline for its commissioning.
What’s significant to note is that while work on the STP is underway, the underground sewer lines laid by the Corporation covering almost entire Southern Margao and neighhbouring Rumdamol Housing Board already stands complete.
It is a sheer irony that the entire underground sewage line, laid at the cost of around Rs 200 crore is still not commissioned till date because the Rs 42 crore STP is incomplete.
A senior officer conceded that that the underground line is not only complete in all respects, but the Corporation is ready to give sewage household connections, but for the incomplete Sewage treatment plant.
“The Corporation had designed the 20-MLD STP costing Rs 42 crore to take care of the sewage generated in southern Margao and the Rumdamol Housing Board area. Unless the STP plant is complete, we cannot connect the households to the underground sewer line,” remarked the official.
Now, take the case of the second plant, the 6.7 MLD STP built at the PWD Sirvodem sewage plant complex under the JICA project. As reported by The Goan earlier, work on the STP is complete and the commissioning is delayed for want of an electrical connection. But, consider this fact. While this 6.7 MLD STP is expected to treat the sewage generated in the northern main section, covering entire Fatorda constituency and parts of Margao, the underground line carrying the sewage is presently lying in a damaged condition at a number of points along the 13-km stretch, with sewage finding its way in the fields and water bodies.
Questions are being raised how the 6.7 MLD plant will serve the purpose once commissioned when the very underground line carrying sewage from the northern main line from Fatorda is damaged and awaiting urgent replacement. As reported earlier, though PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had announced that work on the replacing the underground line will be taken up at a whopping cost of Rs 65 crore, the proposal is yet to receive green signal from the finance department.
When The Goan called up the Managing Director of Goa Sewage Infrastructure Development Corporation, Arvind Patil, to shed light on the Margao sewage project, he conceded that the underground line laid in the city’s southern zone, from Aquem, Vidyanagar, Malbhat, besides the Rumdamol Housing Board, could not be commissioned because the 20 MLD plant is still not complete.
“Though we have set December as the deadline to commission the 20 MLD plant, we have decided to expedite the same by around October so that the underground line is connected to the plant,” he said.
When The Goan asked why the underground sewer line in Margao’s southern zone cannot be connected to the JICA’s 6.7-MLD plant which is expected to be commissioned soon after receiving power supply, Patil said the proposal can be given a thought, more so when the underground line in the city’s south zone is ready for commissioning.
