With the deadline for completion of work on various sewage treatment plants (STPs) coming up in the city precariously close to Mahakumbh to be held in January 2013 land acquisition-related issues in at least three sites are causing concern. The Ganga Pollution Control Unit (GPCU) under the UP Jal Nigam,which is the implementing agency for the citys sewerage plan,wants the four STPs at Kodra,Ponghat,Rajapur and Numayadhai to be completed by September 2012,so that it gets nearly three months to test the newly laid systems before the Mahakumbh gets under way. However,the delay in land acquisition in at least three sites may lead to a delay. If everything goes right,it takes normally 15 months to complete a STP,sources said. With only 18 months remaining for Mahakumbh to start,delay of even a couple of months from now on may affect preparations for the holy fair,they added. One of the sites where land acquisition is taking time is Kodra where a STP of 25 million litres per day (MLD) capacity is coming up. Nearly one-third land has been acquired,but the process of acquiring two-thirds of the land (nearly 2.5 hectares) is still in the process. There is no point in initiating the work on the one-third stretch because if there is further delay in acquiring the rest of it,the entire exercise would prove futile, said an official. At Numayadhai,the work on the STP of 50 MLD capacity has begun. But an approach road to the site (0.2 hectares) is yet to be acquired. While the work is not getting directly affected,sources pointed out that once the approach road is built,the construction pace can increase. Though not a STP,the proposed site for a sewage pumping station (SPS),which is crucial for the entire sewerage plan,at Mori Gate Fort,is still awaiting execution and the matter has even reached the Allahabad High Court. At least 1,123.80 square metres of land,belonging to the Defence,was to be transferred to the UP government for the SPS. The in-principle approval for the transfer of land has already been given by the ministry of defence. But the state government has not been able to get the issue related to the cost of land sorted out quickly. The high court has issued directions to the state government to ensure that the matter is resolved at the earliest. Thankfully,there are no such problems on the STP sites at Rajapur (60 MLD) and Ponghat (10 MLD). The GPCU,meanwhile,is hoping that all these issues would be sorted out within the next month. We are expecting that the defence land for Mori Gate SPS will be transferred to us before the end of this month. Also,in other cases,there is no opposition,as such,from the people. Once these issues are sorted out,the work will begin in full pace as tenders have already been awarded for all the projects, said general manager,GPCU,A K Mittal. He said that the projects should be completed by December 2012.
