Pending projects stare new govt in the face

Pending projects stare new govt in the face
Business Standard.com

Vidya Kulkarni / Chennai/ Dharwad February 14, 2006

During the Dharam Singh regime projects worth crores of rupees were announced for the development of twin cities. The twin cities lag behind Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore and Hassan. The government had promised to transform the twin cities into an investor-friendly zone.

The formation of various committees and several rounds of meetings had raised hopes. But most projects did not take off. Now with the change in the government the people are worried about the fate of the projects.

The Dharam Singh government had announced several projects with assistance from many agencies within and abroad.

The City Infrastructure Improvement Committee (CIIC) had been formed with the deputy commissioner as its chairman to coordinate development works. The CIIC had been set up on the advise of the then Dharwad deputy commissioner, Gaurav Gupta. Ring roads to ease traffic congestion, setting up of a truck terminus, providing night landing facility at Hubli airport, creation of infrastructure for high court circuit bench were some of the projects initiated.

A Water and Land Management Institute was planned in Dharwad, so also was an IT Park at Hubli, construction of an indoor stadium in Dharwad, streamlining of traffic and most importantly regular and adequate supply of potable water to the twin cities have been on the agenda of the CIIC.

The CIIC held several rounds of meetings and discussed plans and projects but in the absence of funds, they were merely talking shops.

The state government submitted to the Centre a proposal to construct a 9.45 km ring road between Dharwad and Hubli. It has released Rs 20 lakh for the survey for the said works. But there is no information on the progress of the survey work. The widening of the road between Hubli and Dharwad for Rs 10 crore announced long ago is yet to be complete. Similarly, the work on rehabilitation of hawkers and vendors displaced during the ‘Operation Footpath’ is yet to take off. HDMC commissioner P Manivannan had said that 508 sites had been sanctioned for rehabilitating the roadside vendors.

Another major project hanging in balance is the Rs 176 crore Malaprabha third stage drinking water project when completed will provide 100 litres of water per capita per day for 20 lakh people till 2035 in the twin cities. The government has been talking of the project for over a decade.

The truth about the much-publicised World Bank-funded Malaprabha Third stage is that the finance department has rejected the proposal stating that the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation did not have the capacity to repay the loan.

The fact that the state government failed to use Rs 36 crore sanctioned by the Centre for the development of small and medium towns speaks of the lack of political will and preparedness of the bureaucracy to implement the projects. The state government has sanctioned another Rs 205 crore (in addition to the Rs 1,100 crore) to the department of municipal administration this fiscal.

The dilly-dallying by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) in handing over the 100-acre land to South Western Railway (SWR) has resulted in the SWR delaying development works in the region. The state government has agreed to hand over 100 acres near Rayapur between Dharwad and Hubli to the Railways for the goods-shed. Despite clearance at the ministerial level the KIADB has not handed over the land. Sources said the KIADB is demanding a hefty price.

The SWR had prepared a plan to upgrade the Hubli railway station for Rs 15 crore. The SWR says that expansion and development of Hubli Railway station cannot be taken up until the goods-shed is shifted.

The work on upgrading Hubli airport for Rs 2 crore was supposed to commence but is pending as the master plan is yet to be approved. Similarly, the work on supplying Malaprabha water to Belur industrial area off Dharwad was to be completed in December and water was to be supplied to the area from January. This was to enable the Tatas to set up their proposed unit in the area besides attracting more units. But the work is nowhere near completion.

Hubli-Dharwad has been included in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The mission, launched by the Union ministry of urban employment and poverty alleviation aims at providing basic services to urban poor in 63 cities. In Karnataka, Bangalore has been selected under the category of cities with four million plus population and Hubli-Dharwad under cities with one million population. All the works under the mission need to be completed within seven years.

It is to be seen if those from Dharwad district occupying ministerial berths in the new dispensation ensure the sanctioned projects are not stalled.