Dollar burden on Telangana: Govt to pay salaries of foreign engineers, other staffs
Hyderabad: The Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel project has imposed a “dollar burden” on the Telangana state government.
The contractors have exerted pressure on the government to approve payment of salaries of foreign engineers and other staff operating imported machinery to dig tunnels in US dollars.
Though no rule is prescribed in the contract, the government approved the demand, costing the state an additional Rs 26 crore. The project cost was estimated to be Rs 2,850 crore at the time the contract was awarded in 2005 by the Congress government.
The contractors are now demanding an additional Rs 700 crore towards cost escalation, but the government has approved Rs 235 crore, which includes Rs 26 crore in salaries.
“It was approved to prevent further delay in the project. The project was supposed to be completed by 2011 and has already been delayed by over five years. Delay was leading to cost escalation by Rs 100 crore per year.
Instead of wasting this huge amount, the government felt payment of the salaries in dollars and speeding up works which resulted in an excess of only Rs 26 crore was better,” said an irrigation department official. He said the orders to this effect will be issued within a week.
SLBC is considered to be the world’s largest tunnel project conceived by former CM Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy to ensure a permanent solution for the 500 fluoride- hit villages in Nalgonda district by supplying 4,000 cusecs of water through two tunnels of 50.75 km.
While Tunnel-1 extends over 43.9 km, only 30-km stretch has been completed. Work on Tunnel-2 on 7 km stretch is yet to completed. There is still a balance of 40 per cent works which include digging tunnels and construction of balancing reservoir at Udayasamudram.
However, the contractors — JP Associates and US-based firm Robbins Inc stopped work midway in 2015 on the grounds that the contract awarded 10 years ago was not viable due to delay and sought price escalation of '700 crore.
The Robbin Inc, has been seeking payment of salaries for its staff and workers in dollars. With the Rupee weakening against dollar in the last one year, the government has to pay Rs 26 crore in excess over the original contract.
