VMC welcomes JNNURM officials after ‘window dressing’ at housing sites

Although sources in the civic body maintained that the team was happy with the quality of the project and its fast implementation,the fact remains that the project, which was to be completed in 21 months after the work order was issued in 2007,kickstarted only in January 2008 and is still not completed.

“The officials first visited Ahmedabad and came to Vadodara and had a look at the progress. They were happy with the quality and speedy work of the housing colonies,” said a senior VMC official.

The Congress,however,said that the VMC officials are hiding the “real picture”.

“Work at the sites visited by the JNNURM officials have been delayed by several months. Even after almost two years,they have not been able to complete the construction work of the colonies. It is still uncertain when they would complete the same,” said Opposition leader Chirag Zaveri.

Admitting the delay,an official said: “Of the total 6,668 houses,work is going on 5,388 houses and only 1,000 houses are ready. After the work order was issued in 2007,work had actually begun in January 2008. It slowed down due to a steep rise in steel prices. Now, work has once again started and we are expecting it to be over soon.”

At Kisanwadi,local residents were surprised when VMC officials carried out window dressing on Wednesday evening.

“Since Wednesday,VMC officials were seen painting the walls and cleaning up the whole premises. We were unaware about why they were doing this. It was only late in the evening did we come to know about the visit. On Saturday,we were not allowed to meet the team or VMC officials,otherwise we would have represented our problems regarding the project,” said a resident in Kisanwadi.