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mphal, Jul 18 : The construction of Khuga multi-purpose project is taking so long that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who laid its foundation nearly three decades ago, is shying away from commissioning it.
“The Prime Minister did not even want us to mention the name of the project when I met him. He did not say no to the invitation for commissioning the project, but showed reluctance as the project has become too old,” chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh told the Assembly today.
Singh laid the founda1tion stone of the project at Khuga in the southern district of Churachandpur in 1980, when he was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
Though the project is nearly 30 years old, its components are not yet ready for use.
The original cost of the project, Rs 15 crore, has in the meantime escalated to Rs 250 crore.
The multi-purpose project aims to irrigate 15,000 hectares of agriculture land and provide five million gallons of drinking water daily.
It also has a 1.5MW power project.
However, the trial run for irrigation and drinking water is yet to take place and the power project equipment, purchased long back, have rusted and become useless by now.
Ibobi Singh and irrigation and flood control minister N. Biren Singh blamed former governments for taking so long to complete the project.
“It is only after the Ibobi Singh government came to power in 2002 that the work was taken up on a war footing. At that time the project was almost abandoned. The previous governments also failed to maintain work quality,” Biren Singh said, reacting to charges by two Opposition members, Okram Joy Singh and T. Hankhanpao.
The Opposition members alleged that poor quality of work led to frequent breaching of the earthen embankment of the main canal. They also expressed the apprehension that the main dam could collapse, killing people and livestock extensively in the district.
Ibobi Singh said breaching of embankments at one point or other was normal during a trial run because the embankments had not yet settled down.
“The minister and engineers are working round-the-clock to plug holes and improve the embankments,” he assured the House.
Biren Singh, too, assured the House that the main dam would never breach.
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