TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: It’s official. The entire 9.2-km northern underground sewerage line connecting Arlem to the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Sirvodem in the commercial capital has deteriorated and is hit by infiltrations at several points along the stretch.
The worst hit stretch, a spot survey has revealed, is the Khareband-Sirvodem STP point, which runs parallel to river Sal. Senior PWD officials informed that while the entire line needs immediate replacement, the Khareband-STP stretch should be attended to on a war-footing given its sorry state.
PWD (sewerage) has proposed replacement of the entire 9.2-km long line, saying the entire stretch has outlived its utility. Estimates revealed that that the replacement work will cost the exchequer around Rs 65 crore. While the estimates have been forwarded to the PWD head office, the proposal is yet to receive administrative nod from the government.
The entire line was checked and cleaned up with the help of tankers made available to the PWD under the JICA project. PWD sources in the know said that CCTV footage of the operation showed plant roots inside the underground line, blocking smooth flow of sewage. The roots were cut and trimmed to make way for smooth flow of the sewage. At other places, thick deposit of silt and mud was hampering the flow of sewage. “The tanker equipped to flush out the waste and silt deposited inside the line has cleaned up the underground line all along the 9.2 km stretch”, informed a PWD engineer.
The engineer, however, said while the stretch of the underground line, spanning from Arlem to Ambaji, behind the district hospital under construction can meet the requirements for couple of more years, the stretch between Ambaji-Old Market and Khareband-Sirvodem needs urgent replacement. “We have proposed the replacement of the entire line to cater to growing requirement of sewage disposal. Our estimates reveal that it will cost the exchequer Rs 65 crore to lay a new 9.2-km line from Arlem to the treatment plant at Sirvodem”, the engineer said.
A senior engineer told Herald that though one can find chambers standing tall along the Khareband-Sirvodem stretch, the chambers and the underground line have openings, giving rise to infiltrations during the monsoon.
Work on the northern main underground line had started way back in mid-1984 and the project was partly completed 16 years later in 2000 with the commissioning of the 7.5-MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Sirvodem. The partly commissioned project, however, soon began to give nightmares to PWD officials, with sewage water oozing out from the underground line, indicating rampant infiltrations all along the course, especially along the stretch of the line submerged in the low lying fields at Ambaji, Old Market and Sirvodem.
The worst hit stretch, a spot survey has revealed, is the Khareband-Sirvodem STP point, which runs parallel to river Sal. Senior PWD officials informed that while the entire line needs immediate replacement, the Khareband-STP stretch should be attended to on a war-footing given its sorry state.
PWD (sewerage) has proposed replacement of the entire 9.2-km long line, saying the entire stretch has outlived its utility. Estimates revealed that that the replacement work will cost the exchequer around Rs 65 crore. While the estimates have been forwarded to the PWD head office, the proposal is yet to receive administrative nod from the government.
