SHILLONG: The completion of the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (Phase III) has missed several deadlines with the government citing various reasons for the delay.
President Pratibha Patil had on October 22, 2008, laid the foundation stone for the project.
The project was initially scheduled to be completed by May 2011 but to no avail. Thereafter, September 2013 was the date set by the public health engineering (PHE) department but had to be extended to 2015.
Yet again, there was a new deadline, March 2016, which it missed, followed by another miss in March this year.
In the past, both CAG and the Assembly Committee had pulled up the PHE department for the unusual delay in completion of the project.
PHE minister Celestine Lyngdoh, who assumed charge of the department after he was inducted in the Mukul Sangma ministry earlier this month, said, “Sixty eight to 70 per cent work has been completed.”
The minister however cited various reasons for its delay.
“There are a number of factors that create problems including land, realignment of road and municipal elections. Residents of many localities are not willing to part with their land. We are trying to negotiate with the residents till they are convinced,” he said.
The construction of the proposed road from Umshyrpi to Dawki will involve digging. The PHE department wants to ensure that there is no problem with the laying of water pipes.
“The alignment of the road will have to be taken into consideration for laying of pipes,” Lyngdoh said.
He further said the package has been sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) which comes with a condition that municipal elections should be held.
However, the state government has been unable to conduct municipal elections in the state which has hit the overall implementation of the scheme.
