R & B Dept throws a spanner in the works of Water Board

Roadblock for Krishna Phase III.

• Inter-departmental issues holding up work

• Acquire own land or pay for future modifications, says R&B Dept

• New mandate imposes Rs 300-cr additional burden; stalling work

• 200 acres of land needs to be acquired

Phase III of the ambitious project to bring Krishna water to city has literally hit a roadblock. For, the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department, which has to give permission to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS & SB) for the laying of pipelines, has asked the board to either acquire land on its own for the works or be prepared to shift the pipelines in future in case they have to be laid on R&B land. This new mandate of the R&B department has put the water board officials in a fix and is contributing to further delay in the execution of the works, which already has been moving at a snail’s pace.

The Rs 1677-cr ambitious project, launched two months ago by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy at Saheb Nagar, is intended to bring 90 million gallons of extra water from the Nagarjuna Sagar to the city. For its pipeline-related works, the water board is required to obtain permissions from various government departments like R&B, GHMC, APIIC and HMDA. A pipeline, running to a total length of 172 km, has to be laid and about 100 km of the line would pass through land under R&B.

The water board has come up with a plan to lay phase 3 pipelines beside those of phases 1 and 2. The R&B, which apparently had no issues with the works for phases 1 and 2, chose to be silent with regard to permission for phase 3 works despite repeated requests by the officials of water board. The officials are understood to have responded only after the Chief Secretary had intervened.

The response of the officials of R & B turned out to be a shocker for the water board as they were asked to acquire land on their own in the 100 km stretch through which the pipeline passes in R & B limits or be prepared to shift the pipelines as well as the valve rooms in case of any road widening in the future. Sources with the water board say that the R & B has asked the board to give it in writing, should they proceed with pipe laying works without acquiring the requisite land.

Land acquisition

For the pipelines to be laid properly 30 metre wide area is required and for the 100-km-long pipeline passing through R&B limits nearly 200 acres of land has to be acquired. The land parcels in the stretch are mostly registered and even as per government determined rates the water board has to shell out a minimum of Rs 300 crore for acquiring the land. For the cash-strapped Water Board this would be a heavy burden. This has given rise to speculations that the phase 3 works of might not be completed in time.

“As of now, we cannot take up land acquisition. We will go ahead with the pipeline works now; if required, we will shift the valve rooms in future,” said J Shyamala Rao, MD, HMWS&SB.