TWAD should implement the Pillor phase-II
The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board Workers’ Union (affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions) has demanded that only the board should be asked to implement the Rs.113-crore Pilloor Phase II drinking water supply scheme for the Coimbatore Corporation areas and a few other local bodies. The scheme envisages a supply of 125 million litres a day (mld), of which around 65 mld is for the city.In a statement issued here on Thursday, union general secretary M. Balakumar said that since the board had already provided the basic infrastructure while implementing the first phase scheme itself, it would not be advisable to involve private parties to execute the works for the second phase.With almost 75 per cent of the facilities for the second phase already available in the first one, the scheme could be handed over to the water board itself, the statement said.The union said it was reiterating the demand in the wake of the Corporation indicating that it would go ahead with the plan to invite global tenders. This meant that private parties would also enter the bidding for taking up the scheme.The statement claimed that it was the TWAD Board that helped the Corporation prepare the detailed project report for the scheme. The statement also claimed that the board’s experts had come to the aid of the Corporation in re-working some portions of the civic body’s report on the scheme after these were found inadequate by the mission officials.
The board had already drawn up the second scheme and the implementation should have been entrusted to it. But, with the Corporation facing funds shortage, the scheme was then brought under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission so that grants from the Central and State Governments could be obtained.But, the decision to involve private firms through global tender was not right, the union said. Barring the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the other parties in the Coimbatore Corporation Council had opposed this move. The Corporation’s decision to go ahead with its plan despite the opposition was unfortunate, the statement said.
