Irrigation project delays draining state exchequer

Inflation and delay in execution are the key reasons behind the rise in the cost of these projects. As revealed in a recent study — conducted by the state’s Water Resource Department (WRD) — the method for preparing the initial estimate was erroneous. It had no provision for taking into account the price hike during the execution of the project. The WRD’s study on eight projects has estimated that the price inflation alone accounted for 10 to 80 per cent of the total increase in a period of five to 30 years.

Moreover, none of the contractors, who were engaged in implementing the projects, had done their job. Each of them was awarded tender by following procedures that took a long time. Worse, since the sites of these projects were located in remote areas and suffered from infrastructural disabilities, mobilisation of resources took a long time too. Besides, the cost of land acquisition turned out to be much higher than projected in the estimate. In addition, poor performance on the part of contractors and disputes requiring arbitration contributed towards the delay.

Although the Government has no plans for overcoming these problems, D K Tiwari, Secretary (WRD) said that efforts were being made to get all these projects, except Swarnarekha, completed by 2010. “To minimise the time and cost overrun, we are planning to adopt e-tender procedure,” he added.