Installation of Water Pipeline
Ctg Wasa, RHD at loggerheads
In the face of opposition from the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Chittagong Wasa has failed to start installing pipelines for Karnaphuli Water Supply Project in a 21-kilometre stretch of Kaptai road.
The RHD has said it will cause massive damages if the pipelines are installed in the middle of the six-metre wide road from Godown Ghat in Rangunia upazila and Kuyaish area on the edge of Chittagong city.
Junaed Ahsan Shibli, additional chief engineer of RHD, said it would also create a huge traffic jam during the period of the installation.
He said they had asked Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority to set up the pipelines on one side along the road preserved for its widening.
Engr AKM Fazlullah, managing director of Chittagong Wasa, said it was not possible to have the pipelines on one side of the road because the roadside soil was not strong enough to withstand the load of the pipelines.
According to Wasa officials, each of the iron pipelines, six metres in length and 1.2 metres in diameter, weighs four tonnes. With water, the weight would be increased to about 18 tonnes, they said.
Engr Fazlullah said the roadside installation also might cause technical problems any time.
Karnaphuli water supply plant located in Rangunia upazila is the biggest ever water plant of Chittagong Wasa. Scheduled to be completed in December 2013, it will produce 13.6 crore litres of water for supply to Chittagong city.
Over the ongoing stalemate, the RHD and Chittagong Wasa are blaming each other.
The RHD officials say Chittagong Wasa did not take permission from them for installation of the pipelines though the department is responsible for looking after the roads and highways.
The Wasa officials have said they are carrying out the project with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and it has been approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec).
When Ecnec approves a project, it gives the right to the designated organisation to do whatever it deems necessary, said the Chittagong Wasa MD.
He said when they worked on the city roads they did not take any permission from the city corporation. Similarly they did not seek any permission from the RHD, he added.
In a bid to work out a solution, two ministries–communications and LGRD–in control of the government agencies have formed a joint survey team.
Both RHD and Chittagong Wasa officials told The Daily Star that it was now up to the two ministries to break the impasse.
Official sources said the joint survey team had already prepared a report in this regard but was yet to release it.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
