Despite the stringent warnings given by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to the officials to complete all the ongoing works for the Godavari Pushkarams by July 5 (Sunday), the task is unlikely to be accomplished by the deadline, with many of the projects still lying in various stages of completion.
Since May, the Chief Minister have visited Rajahmundry four times to review the progress of the works and in all his visits, he had set deadlines for the speedy completion of the works undertaken at bathing ghats, laying of roads and repairs to temples. But, they were missed. Mr, Naidu had gave emphasis on the works being executed by the Municipal Corporation of Rajahmundry (MCR), Roads & Buildings (R&B), Irrigation Departments, which included the Gammon India’s fourth bridge being built across the Godavari river.
The CM, during his May 1 visit, launched the Pushkaram works and constituted Cabinet Sub-Committee to oversee the progress of the works. The works undertaken by the R&B Department, which got the major chunk of funds, are going on at a snail’s pace .
At Munikoodali, where a rush of 5 lakh pilgrims per day is expected, the construction of ghats was stopped. “We went to divisional engineer more than five times, but have got no response,” said MPP Karuturi Viswanatham. Second sluice was washed away in the recent rains, is not ready yet.
During his June 25{+t}{+h}visit, the CM set July 1 deadline for the MCR and on Thursday, he gave last warning to Municipal Commissioner J. Murali to complete all the works by July 5.
“Out of the 343 works, 59 has been cancelled, with no contractor having turned up to bid for the projects with the outlays below Rs. 5 to 10 lakh. As many as 194 works have been completed. We are having major road work undertaken in the stretch between the Madhurapudi Airport and the city, which includes number of culverts, sidedrains, pipelines and road extensions,” R & B Superintendent Engineer S. Murthy said.
Meanwhile, the contractors alleged that the Municipal Commissioner had failed in handling the works, attributing the delay in completion of the works to the failure in payment of bills.
