Seeking an inquiry into the Rs 200 crore Phase-1 and Phase-2 Water Audit and Energy Audit Project undertaken by the Vadodara Smart City Development Limited (VSDCL), Pushpa Vaghela, a Congress Corporator from Ward-1 of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), on Friday dashed a letter to Municipal Commissioner Dilip Rana and the State Vigilance Commissioner (SVC). Vaghela has alleged that during her "surprise visit" to the water tanks in her ward, she found out that the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) flowmeters that had been installed in the two phases were dysfunctional. In a letter to the Municipal Commissioner, Vaghela said that she came across "non-operational" SCADA-based flowmeters that were installed in 2019-2020. Speaking to reporters, she said, "The SCADA flowmeters were installed as part of the Vadodara Smart City project in two phases. While Phase-1 had flow meters to gauge the flow of water from the source to the tank, Phase-2 saw flow meters being installed for gauging the outflow of the water distribution in the area from the tank. The project was completed on time. I visited the Chhani water tank today following complaints from residents. However, when I checked the flowmeters, they were not functional." Vaghela further said that when she called the VMC officer concerned, she was allegedly told that "flowmeters were yet to be installed". "I got conflicting responses from two officers. At Chhani, I was told that the installation was not complete and when I went to the Sama and Soma Talav tanks, officials said the flowmeters had been installed and were functional. But it was not working. I immediately wrote a letter to the Municipal Commissioner and have also written to the state vigilance department seeking an inquiry. The VMC has spent nearly Rs 200 crores for the entire project and it is the taxpayers' money,” she said. The Additional City Engineer for water works and executive engineer (water supply) Amrut Makwana was unavailable for comment. The VSCDL had issued a tender for "Supply, Installation, Testing, and Commissioning of Flow Meters, Valves and Instrumentation for SCADA Phase-2 Water Audit and Energy Audit Project with five years of Comprehensive Operation and Maintenance" for certain parts of the city in January 2020. The estimated cost of the installation of flow meters as per the tender was Rs 2.08 crores and the project was to be completed within 21 months.
