Ajit patowary
GUWAHATI, Feb 8 – Almost 40 per cent of the Bharalu drainage improvement work between Jonali point on the RG Baruah Road and Bhangagarh on the GS Road, has been completed. The rest 60 per cent work of the project is expected to be completed by March 31,2009. Though the total length of the stretch is around 1,500 metres on each of the banks of the river, but in a 375-metre stretch on both the left and right side banks, civil work was done earlier. Civil work of the present scheme started on November 2008.
The mechanical work of the scheme is yet to start and the components of the mechanical work include installation of 13 sluice gates on floodwalls on both the banks of the river, covering Anil Nagar, Lachit Nagar, Tarun Nagar, etc. localities. The Anil Nagar, Lachit Nagar and Tarun Nagar ones will be the biggest of all these sluice gates with the proposed shutter size of 3-metre by 2.5-metre.
The size of each of the rest of the sluice gates is of 2-metre by 1.5-metre. The cost for installing these sluice gates have been estimated to be Rs 50 lakh, including the civil work components for the purpose.
Apprising this, Executive Engineer of the Guwahati East Division of the Water Resources Department Ranjit Chandra Barman and Assistant Executive Engineer of the Division Pranab Das told this correspondent that the civil work components of the scheme include, provision of 1.5-metre wide bamboo foot bridge as a temporary means of communication for carrying construction materials.
Against all these an amount of Rs 88,000 has been earmarked, while for the de-watering of the canals dug for erecting the walls, an amount of Rs 3,89, 592 has been earmarked.
The mechanical works include another component of three de-watering submersible pumps at the cost of Rs 54 lakh. In addition to this, an amount of Rs 6 lakh has been earmarked for accessories of these pimps, which will be used during the rainy season for pumping out storm water whenever the sluice gates are kept closed. These pumps will be installed at Anil Nagar, Lachit Nagar and Tarun Nagar, said Barman and Das.
It needs mention here that to save Anil Nagar, Lachit Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Shree Nagar, etc. city localities from flash floods, the Bharalu Drainage Improvement Scheme has been undertaken by the Water Resources Department in this stretch of the river.
But during the implementation of the scheme, a portion of the riverbed has to be excavated for erecting the boulder guard walls on both of its banks. The amount of earth thus excavated was not envisaged earlier, let alone conceiving any idea to remove the excavated earth, admitted Barman and Das. The size of earth excavated for implementing the scheme has made the people of the localities concerned doubt the efficacy of the project for saving their localities from flash floods.
Now the Kamrup (Metro) district administration has asked the Mechanical Division of the Water Resources Department to prepare a proposal for removal of the excavated earth from the riverbed. The Guwahati Mechanical wing of the Department has started the earth removing, said Barman and Das.
They also maintained that the civil work of boulder guard walls along the riverbanks were delayed due to the encroachment on both the banks. The constraint is more pronounced behind the Rajiv Bhawan in Tarun Nagar area (that is, at Chainage 450 metre on the left bank. If the civil administration does not acquire the land, it will create problems for implementing the scheme, said the WRD officials.
The encroachment on the Bharalu banks needs to be removed for creation of two service roads on the banks to maintain the river channel, they said.
Social Plugin