The Krishna Pushkaralu-2016, which is scheduled to take place between August 12 and 23, is just seven months away, but the district administration has not even finalised the proposals seeking the grants for various works to b9e taken up to facilitate the safe journey to devotees.
Even if the State government issues tenders inviting bids to these works within a fortnight starting today, the officials associated with the Pushkaralu told The Hindu it would not be possible to start the work by March 15 by completing the tender process. That means the contractor will have just four months at hand to complete the gigantic task.
No contractor in Nalgonda district is competent to complete the huge length of roads within a short time as they lack efficient machinery. The crushing machines being operated in the district would not be even able to supply sufficient gravel used for laying roads and construction of bathing ghats within such a short time, and the existing sand policy will also come in the way in supplying huge quantity of sand at the time unless the Government relaxes norms.
Since the district administration finalised the bathing ghats to 28, the Irrigation Department prepared the proposal estimating the cost of construction of each bathing ghat between Rs. 5 to 9 crore. The R&B department put the cost of the total roads to be laid at Rs. 500 crore, while the Panchayat Raj department put the cost of the roads at Rs. 100 crore.
Apart from these works, the Rural Water and Sanitation department had to connect all the bathing ghats with safe drinking water supply, while the Endowment department had also prepared proposals to renovate temples located along the Krishna river.
According to sources, the district administration had prepared and forwarded the proposals to the State government during November last year, but the Government asked them to revise the proposals taking the observations of the Police into consideration, since the regulation of traffic would be the key in making the entire Pushkaralu a success.
Meanwhile, the Model Code of Conduct for the MLC election came into force and there was no progress in preparing the revised proposals until December last.
Holding a review meeting on the last day of 2015, District Collector P. Satyanarayana Reddy instructed the officials to come up with revised proposals taking the Police’s observation into consideration, which will be forwarded to the State government after thorough discussions during a review meeting to be held on Monday.
An officer, who worked during Godavari Pushakarlu, observed that any further delay will spoil the entire festival, since the delay in taking up the works before Godavari Pushakaralu caused many problems to pilgrims. “Some of the works taken up during Godavari Pushakaralu are not yet complete,” the source said.