Hyderabad: Irrigation projects are dogged by delay, cost escalation, contractors negligence and official apathy, resulting in a four-fold increase in cost due to time overrun of up to 12 years. An estimate prepared by the irrigation department has put the cost of the delay at Rs 30,000 crore. These projects were launched by the Congress government as part of Jalayagnam between 2004 and 2009. Contractors are minting money as the government is paying revised costs as per existing rates to complete the projects. The government cannot afford to cancel the contracts and invite tenders at this stage as it would escalate the project costs further.
The Congress government launched the projects without acquiring land and securing approvals from the Centre. Each project needs 18 approvals, mainly on forest, environmental issues. With approvals not forthcoming, contractors halted works, and are holding the government responsible. To overcome this, the Congress government started paying excess amounts to contractors to compensate them for the delay. The same procedure is being adopted by the Telangana state government.
An irrigation department official said, “The contractors are benefiting from the delay. They are giving sub-contracts to those who are actually investing the money, but the government has to pay excess amount to the original contractors as per norms.” He said the benefits were not being passed on to sub-contractors. “A huge amount of public money is going waste, into the pockets of contractors.” For this reason, the official added, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had launched projects giving specific deadlines for contractors and work agencies. The progress was being examined daily from Pragathi Bhavan by installing CCTV cameras at all project sites.
