Team Herald
PONDA: The much-awaited 15 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Ponda may take two more years to be commissioned, considering the quantum of pending work, said sources in the Sewerage Department.
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While the construction of the STP began in 2016, it has missed both its 2018 and 2021 deadlines, with the engineers facing several technical issues due to the “cup-like” geographical terrain of the taluka.
While the STP is built and ready, with most of the sewers laid, sources said that door to door-to-door connections have not yet been availed by or provided to a majority of residents.
Provisions have been made for only fifty percent of the required number of connections, and it will take a
minimum of a year’s time to complete the task, said sources from the department.
The project has also hit a major technical hurdle pertaining to the main sewage pumping junction coming up near the PMC garden, with a large amount of ground water penetrating the sewerage chambers, due to which the chambers have been dug up again, and the water, pumped out. Ponda MLA and Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik had blamed the consultant of the project for the repeated delays, stating that a proper land survey was not conducted while laying the sewage lines.
Making matters worse for the people of Ponda, officials from the PWD’s road division said they were not ready to take on the hotmix carpeting of the roads as there is no guarantee when the sewage chambers would be dug up again.
