Posted on October 17, 2017
By Mudasir Yaqoob, Greater Kashmir
Despite passing two years ago, authorities have failed to start dredging of the Rambagh flood spill channel here.
Experts said dredging of the channel is imperative for saving the summer capital from floods in case of rise in water level in Jhelum.
The bid for the dredging was allotted to a contractor in 2015. Despite failure of the contractor, authorities have given him one more month to start work on the project.
Presently, the water level in Jhelum is considerably low and experts said this is the best time to undertake dredging in the flood spill channel. The flood spill channel starts from Padshahibagh and flows into Wullar Lake in Bandipora district. It regulates Jhelum water level while passing through Srinagar.
Officials said under terms and conditions of the contract, the contractor was bound to start the work within three days after letter of authority was issued to him in 2015. He was also bound to complete the work within stipulated 60 days.
“Inability of authorities to cancel the bid and allot it to new bidder has put Srinagar again at risk of floods in case of rise in Jhelum water level. This speaks about the failure of higher ups to increase carrying capacity of the river,” said Ghulam Qadir, a resident Jawahar Nagar which bore the brunt of devastating flood in 2014.
Abdul Hamid, a local of Mehjoor Nagar said that “no good can be expected from the authorities when they take two years to start the work which otherwise was supposed to be completed in sixty days.”
“Several ministers have been expressing resentment against delay in completion of Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh fly over. Ironically, they never bothered to even check the status of Rambagh flood spill channel,” he added.
Chief engineer Public Health Engineering department, Abdul Wahid, who presently holds additional charge of Irrigation and Flood Control department said “the contract will be terminated if the contractor again fails to start the work within a month.” About the delay in starting the dredging, the chief engineer said “there were some issues. Due to unrest in 2016, the contractor could not start the work.”
However, he failed to elaborate as why authorities failed to penalize the contractor and float fresh tenders.
The chief engineer admitted that dredging is going on at slow pace in Jhelum. “The private firm has removed 4.31 lakh cubic meters of material from Jhelum in Srinagar against the target of 7 lakh cubic meters. It took them two years to extract this quantity. Their performance has not remained satisfactory,” he said while replying to a query.
To mention, the present capacity of the flood spill channel is around 4,000 cusecs in Srinagar and it decreases further while moving towards north Kashmir. Authorities have set up a target of increase its carrying capacity up to 20,000 cusecs.
Source: Greater Kashmir
