Drainage work in Guntur and Vijayawada may be revived

Guntur/Vijayawada: Hopes have been rekindled that the underground drainage work in Guntur city and stormwater drainage project in Vijayawada will be revived following chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s order to complete both the projects. The infrastructure work in both cities connected to the capital city were stalled after the YSRC government launched a probe into the awarding of the contracts.

While L&T took up the Vijayawada project with Rs 461 crore, Shapoorji and Pallonji launched drainage work in Guntur with Rs 1,000 crore.

The YSRC government had not even released the dues pertaining to the completed portion of the work citing pending enquiry. Vexed with the delay, the firms have almost shut their shop in the two cities and shifted the workforce to project sites in other states.

Almost a year since the work was put on hold, the chief minister has now directed the municipal administration department to resume the project. It is, however, unclear whether the same firms would be allowed to complete the pending work or government would opt for re-tendering.

The question arises because the municipal administration department had cancelled the previous tenders in the housing projects launched by TDP government through the AP Township Infrastructure Development Corporation (AP Tidco) and awarded the work to new firms by calling for fresh tenders. As a policy, the state government had allowed the contractors who completed more than 70%-80% of work to continue but reviewed the other projects.

Although, Guntur drainage project was planned to be completed much before the 2019 general elections, the firm had failed to complete even half of the project. Many of the roads were left after being dug to lay the pipelines leaving the city in chaos for months.

Following the uproar from the public, the YSRC government has directed the district administration to complete construction and repairs of all the roads dug by UGD contractor in the last few months.