T’puram: A 110-crore sewage infrastructure project conceived in 2011 to improve sewage disposal in the city’s coastal belt has remained incomplete for more than a decade, with a legal dispute involving the contractor preventing the project from progressing.The project was proposed to provide a sewage network covering Valiyathura, Beemapally, Vallakkadavu and Muttathara. Around 45km of pipelines were laid under the project. However, key components, including construction of a well and remaining pipeline works, were not completed, leaving the network non-functional.According to Valiyathura councillor Tony Oliver, who had first raised the proposal before the city corporation, the project ran into problems after KWA officials raised objections over the manner in which the pipelines had been laid.Oliver said that in 2014, officials attached to KWA’s Patoor section pointed out that the pipelines were supposed to be laid at a depth of six feet as per the approved design, whereas the pipes had reportedly been laid at around five-and-a-half feet.The technical issue was followed by another dispute, with the contractor stopping work, citing non-payment for the work already completed, Oliver said.“The contractor left the work midway saying that payments had not been made. As a result, the project could not move forward and the people in the coastal areas continued without a proper sewage network,” he said.KWA’s current position is that the contractor’s exit and the subsequent legal proceedings have kept the project stalled.Project DN executive engineer Vijil D said the contractor had left the project and that KWA had initiated legal proceedings against the contractor.He said the project could not be revived immediately as a fresh study would be required to assess the existing infrastructure and determine the work that remains to be completed.“Once the project is taken up again, a fresh study will have to be conducted,” he said.The prolonged delay has left the coastal areas without the functional sewage network envisaged under the project, despite a substantial stretch of pipeline having already been laid.
