Nagpur: The public health engineering (PHE) department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has landed in another controversy, with allegations of gross negligence in execution and supervision of an Rs11 crore sewer trunk line project forcing the Chief Minister’s Office to intervene.The latest controversy comes at a time when the department is already under scrutiny over the recent electrocution of 60-year-old Afroz Begum, allegedly caused by a live wire after a contractor executing PHE’s sewerage works damaged an underground power cable and left it exposed. The department is also facing criticism over the Rs256 crore road restoration project for 38km of roads in southwest Nagpur, necessitated after sewer network works damaged carriageways.Senior BJP corporator Dilip Dive has threatened an indefinite hunger strike, demanding action against responsible officials over what he termed a “blatantly defective” sewer project in Prabhag 37. Following his complaint, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis directed his OSD Sunil Mitra and municipal commissioner Vipin Itankar to examine the matter.Mitra, accompanied by Laxmi Nagar Zone assistant commissioner Dhananjay Jadhav, inspected the affected areas and reportedly found deficiencies in the sewer trunk line. Officials have assured that corrective measures will be completed within two months.Residents of Ravindra Nagar, Telecom Nagar, Deendayal Nagar, Swavalambi Nagar, Shastri Layout, Adivasi Colony and Gawande Layout have been facing persistent sewage overflow and waterlogging because the trunk line, commissioned barely three years ago, allegedly suffers from fundamental engineering flaws.According to Dive, instead of rectifying the defective alignment, the PHE department attempted to bypass the problem by laying an additional pipeline.The controversy centres around an alleged execution blunder by contractor Tapi Construction, which was awarded the project in 2022 to lay the trunk sewer from Hingna Naka to the Pohra river. Dive alleged that nearly one kilometre of the trunk line between Ravindra Nagar and Sarode Nagar was laid about one metre higher than the required gradient, preventing sewage from flowing naturally towards the sewage treatment plant (STP).To overcome the mistake, the civic body allegedly spent another Rs60 lakh to lay a fresh 200-metre pipeline, even though nearly Rs2 crore had already been spent on the defective stretch.The corporator said that almost Rs2.5 crore of taxpayers’ money has been wasted because of poor planning, lack of supervision, and official negligence. He has also sought action against the PHE department’s supervisory officials, alleging that the contractor’s work went unchecked throughout the project.
