SHILLONG: Congress MLA Charles Pyngrope said on Saturday that the government should go for a proper study of the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWSS) before it avails any loan to complete the project.
PHE Minister Samlin Malngiang said the government was planning to take loan from financial institutions and HUDCO had offered Rs 105 crore as loan.
Samlin also said there was a delay in laying pipes at Lad Mawreng due to the opposition from the land owner which led to further delay of the project.
Pyngrope said the government should have a proper plan for the project which has been pending for a very long time. He questioned as to whether the large loan component justifies the present cost when the Phase-III was conceptualized.
“If they are not able to complete at the given timeframe at the given amount, what is the justification of the government in asking for a loan of Rs 105 crore,” Pyngrope remarked.
He pointed out that if the phase III faced several hurdles in its implementation, the government should have gone for proper planning before going ahead with the project.
The phase III will augment water supply to areas covered under the scheme’s phase I and II and cover the remaining urban centers of Pynthorumkhrah, Nongmynsong and Madanrting and others.
Earlier, the CAG report of 2017-18 had revealed that the delay in the completion of phase III of the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme had led to an unfruitful expenditure of Rs 131.84 crore.
The report also pointed out that failure to implement reforms as per the JNNURM timeline had also led to deduction of Rs 17.41 crore.
The project involved works such as construction of two stages of raw water pumping system, augmentation of capacity of the existing water treatment plant and others.
According to the CAG report, work has not been completed despite the incurring expenditure of Rs 132.65 crore and extension of deadlines by more than five years.
The secretary of MUDA said in November 2017 that the state government had released fund for the project and the overall progress was 70 per cent.
The Centre approved the third phase of the project in October 2008 at a cost of Rs 193.50 crore and the objective was to create infrastructure to supply an additional 24 million litres of water to the projected population of the Shillong urban agglomeration from 2011 to 2041.
