Delay in water work due to Ajmal Kasab trial costs BMC Rs12 crore

Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is now affecting the city’s water supply. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) could not lay water pipelines near Arthur Road jail, where he is lodged, for a year because of security reasons. The delay cost the BMC about Rs12crore.

The civic body had decided to change the underground pipelines supplying water to Worli, Prabhadevi, Lower Parel, and Dadar (West), as leakages caused contamination. The cost of the project was pegged at Rs35 crore when the contract was awarded in February 2009.

There were 47 stretches where the BMC had to carry out the work.

The contractor completed work on 35 of these, and the remaining were on Sane Guruji Marg near Arthur Road jail.

The contractor approached the traffic department for clearance, as the work would affect the vehicular flow in the area. Kasab’s trial started at the jail at the same time and so the traffic police refused to give permission.

The police kept the stretch from Jacob Circle to Delisle Road closed for almost one year. The hearing started in April 2009 and ended in May 2010. During this period, the contractor could not carry out any work to lay pipelines.

“The contractor has now written to the BMC, saying that the cost of the project has gone up because of the delay. He asked the BMC to pay him Rs12 crore for the same,” said an official from the hydraulic department.