Finally, PMC’s 24x7 water supply project gets nod, L&T bags contract

After meandering through controversies and debates, the 24x7 water supply scheme on Monday finally received the nod of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The PMC approved a Rs.2,055-crore tender for it.

Standing committee chairman Murlidhar Mohol and municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar briefed the media claiming that the municipal corporation saved almost Rs.1,100 crore by inviting tenders once again as the previous one had to be cancelled after being mired in a controversy. 

The standing committee of the PMC gave nod to the scheme and allotted the work to L&T and Jain Irrigation Company. Almost 90 per cent of the work has gone to L&T and Jain Irrigation will only implement one component of the project. 

Mohol said, “Earlier the project’s estimate cost was Rs.2,600 crore and the tenders were above 26 per cent, which inflated the project cost to Rs.3,100 crore. After opposition from various political parties, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis intervened in the matter and ordered the scrapping of the process. He asked for a re-tendering of the project. As per the chief minister’s instruction, PMC carried out the process and the project cost came down to almost Rs.2,055 crore which is almost 1,100 crore less than the estimate.” 

The municipal commissioner said that the way PMC framed the terms and conditions and carried out the process, helped it save money. Now other cities are also inquiring as to how the PMC brought down the project cost.

The commissioner added that Pune will be the first metropolitan city in the country which will execute such a project on such a large scale. No other city in India has such a project. 

₹195 crore approved for optical fibre duct

The standing committee of the PMC also gave the nod to the optial fibre duct project which will cost Rs.195 crore.  Municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said that as the PMC is executing the 24x7 water supply scheme and digging almost 1,700 km roads, it is helping save the cost of the project. PMC would have almost 1,400 km optical fibre cable ducts in the next three years. The standing committee gave the nod for establishing a dedicated department to handle this new technology. It would help the PMC generate revenue from these ducts.