Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Mar 05: Here is a bad news for all Islanders, the crucial project of raising height of Dhanikari Dam may take some more time to complete, because of acute shortage of construction materials in Andaman andNicobar Islands.
“Though almost half the work of raising height of Dhanikari Dam is over but the work for later half has been badly hit due to shortage of Construction materials,” a very senior officer of Andaman PWD told Andaman Sheekha, who doesn’t want his name to be quoted.
He said that after the recent explosive seizure case there has been an acute shortage of construction materials, which has not hit the crucial project hard.
Regarding curtailment in water supply, the senior officer of APWD said that the water level of Dhanikhari Dam is nearly 2 mtr lower than what it was in last year.
“Yes there was heavy rain last year but in catchments area of Dhanikari dam, rainfall was relatively less,” he said, giving an usual excuse.
He said that present curtailment in water supply has been imposed to make sure that the water in Dhanikhari Dam remains sufficient till June 2012.
“There won’t be any further curtailment in water supply, if everything goes well. We expect Monsoon by May but with this curtailment, we will be able to supply water till June 2012,” he added.
About Rut Island Water Project he said that project will be completed in three phases, out of which, in first phase waters from all the sources of Rut Island will be collected in one huge tank at Rut Island, in second phase the water will be supplied from Rut Island to Phongy Balu via a submarine pipeline in third phase the water from Phongy Balu will be used for water supply in South Andaman Region.
“The work of laying submarine pipeline is a specialized job. The first global tender was rejected while the second global tender is under process,” he said.
