Guwahati water project stumbles as Gammon fails to submit critical drawings

Guwahati, Feb 2: Gammon Engineers and Contractors Pvt Ltd, which was shunted out of the JICA-assisted Guwahati water supply project, has not submitted the "as-built" drawing of the project, leaving Jal Board scrambling to locate vulnerable joints.

"Due to the absence of 'as-built drawings,' the location of manhole pockets in the CWPM (Clear Water Pumping Main or the main pipeline that carries treated water from the plant to the distribution network) is not known. Gammon Engineers and Contractors Pvt Ltd, whose contract was terminated due to poor progress and complete abandonment of the site, did not submit any as-built drawings till the time of termination," the Guwahati Jal Board said in response to an RTI query from Advocate Nayan Moni Hazarika.

Minor leaks have been frequent in commissioned areas of the project, but there were three major incidents of pipe leakage at Joypur-Kharghuli, Rajgarh, and Kharghuli areas. In all three major incidents, it was observed that the welded manholes used for the exit of welders after the closing of a gap in the pipeline had blown out from the pipe.

"Nevertheless, manual excavation was undertaken for several days for identification of manhole pockets through the existing contractor, but no pockets could be located. Hence, for identification and strengthening of the welded manhole, bids were floated, which were non-responsive," the response from the Project Management Consultant (PMC) stated.

Finally, a robotic survey was awarded to M/s Digital Surveillance Inc.

To date, the agency has completed a survey of 681 m out of 2100 m of the main pipeline, and 12 manholes and one weak joint have been identified.

"Work for strengthening of the manholes is presently in progress, and three newly identified manholes have been strengthened," it stated.

As additional measures, pumping is now being done with controlled pressure by operating a single pump instead of three pumps, and inspection and maintenance of valves and pipelines are being stepped up.

The RTI response was, however, silent on if any action was taken against Gammon for the substandard work.

After the first major incident of a leak that took place on May 25, 2023, IIT Guwahati was requested to conduct a safety audit (hydrolic transient analysis) of the CWPM from Kharguli to Ramsa Hills to find out the probable causes of pipeline failure and to suggest remedial measures.

IIT-G had suggested the installation of a surge protection device, which can bring down the surge water pressure, identification of welded joints, and checking their physical health. The second major leak occurred a day ahead of the commissioning of the surge tank.

According to the PMC, the water supply project is expected to be commissioned by September 2025.

The loan agreement for the JICA-funded water supply project was signed way back in 2009. To date, the physical progress is 93.3 percent and financial progress is 88.93 percent.

An amount of Rs 389.53 crore was initially approved for the water supply scheme, of which around Rs 377.98 crore was already paid to Gammon before the contract with the firm was terminated in 2022 due to tardy progress and repeated time buying. An additional fund of Rs 324.35 crore has been earmarked for completion of the project, which is now being executed by L&T.

By

Rituraj Borthakur