‘Wont be silent spectators’: Bombay HC on delay in completion of water pipeline project in Sambhajinagar

Earlier this month, a division bench of Justices R V Ghuge and R M Joshi passed an order in a PIL filed by one Shrihari Anant Shidore and others, raising concerns about the inadequate supply of potable water in the city.

The bench noted that “the progress of the project has slowed down considerably.” Advocate S S Deshmukh, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, submitted that the contractor appointed for the project is likely going to give excuses for delay once the monsoon season begins .

“We do find that the project contractor has given us various assurances on numerous occasions. Not on a single occasion, has the contractor been able to keep his word or the assurance,” the bench noted.

However, the bench said that for the last two years, the HC had been accepting reasons given by the contractor for delay as the pipeline project is a ‘lifeline’ for the citizens and it had been encouraging the contractor to get the work completed.

“We have been condoning the delay with larger objective in focus that some day, the residents of the city would be able to receive potable water, if not on daily basis, at least once in two days as against the present condition of water being supplied once in six days during the rainy and winter season and practically once in eight to nine days during summer season,” it noted.

“There are untold miseries which are being suffered by the residents of this town. The plight of the residents cannot be described in words. It would only be by deeds of the project contractor and all coordinating agencies, which are the part of the project, that one day water would reach the residents of the city and their sufferings…would end,” the order read.

“The project contractor ought not to carry an impression that we would be silent spectators for the delay being caused,” the bench added.

Deshmukh contended that the time has come to pass orders for descoping the project and allot works to the additional sub-contractor.

The bench said it would keep the suggestion as an ‘option open’ to it, “in case it was compelled and driven to such a stage that there is no other option” but to take recourse to such a measure.

It however said that so far, several difficulties have been overcome by local administration, police, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the municipal corporation, “whose excuses do not seem to exhaust, as to why they cannot supply water once in four days.”

In light of this, the judges decided to visit various segments of the project on May 14 morning and inspect those spots, along with lawyers in the matter and the commitee constituted by the high court to look into this matter. The court will hear the PIL again on June 7.