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The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) is planning to restart the work to replace defective pipelines under the Alappuzha drinking water project at Thakazhi before the end of this month.
Officials said they were in the process of preparing a timetable to complete the work. A meeting chaired by Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine on July 12 decided to finish the pending work soon. Further, KWA officials held discussions with the contractor two days ago.
“If things go as planned, the work will resume this month with the completion date set for the end of September. But it all depends on the contractor who wants all his dues cleared by the government before resuming the work. If the contractor continues to show reluctance, the work will have to be given to another contractor through a tendering process. It will be time-consuming,” said an official of the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT)
The Alappuzha drinking water project was executed by the KWA with Central assistance under the UIDSSMT in 2017. However, since its launch, pipelines under the project had burst 71 times, majority of them at Thakazhi, disrupting water supply to residents in Alappuzha municipality and eight nearby grama panchayats, along with damaging the Ambalapuzha-Thiruvalla road.
After more than two years of dilly-dallying, the UIDSSMT launched the pipe relaying work at Kelamangalam and Thakazhi in February this year. The plan was to lay around 1,200 metres of 900-mm mild steel pipe.
The relaying work was carried out by the same contractor who laid the original pipeline. While the laying of 370 metres of pipeline between Kelamangalam and Valiyapalam was completed, the work remains incomplete between Valiyapalam and the railway cross.
It came to a grinding halt in May after the contractor left after laying around 140 metres of pipeline in the second phase.
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