JICA: Contractors unusual plea

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is quite an unheard of form of plea! In an unprecedented move, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), one among the contractors of the Thiruvananthapuram phase of the Japan International Corporation Agency-aided water supply project, has come out with an appeal before the public of the Powdikkonam area to enable them finish the JICA-related work there.L&T placed a flex board along the roadside in this area on Thursday, seeking the support of the public in order to attend to a leak on the pipeline. As part of the project, two reservoirs have been constructed at Puthukunnu, near Powdikkonam, and pipelines were laid spending crores. The pump house got ready, inside Powdikkonam market, nearly a year back. But when the contractors charged the line, a leak was detected.“And each time we turn up to repair that, the public is blocking us. At least four meetings were held in this connection, involving officials of the Kerala Water Authority, JICA and the Corporation, and it was even brought to the notice of the District Collector. But, we have not been able to repair that. This flex board is our last ditch effort to expedite the project. We are taking great pains to finish the project and we sincerely want to finish it at the earliest,” said an official with L&T.According to L&T officials, the public are not against the JICA project. “In fact, we are paying the price for the neglect on the part of politicians and various other departments towards this area.A road here is in a dilapidated condition. They have been knocking at various doors to solve the issue, but to no avail. Now they have no other go but to stop this project so that pressure mounts upon other departments and they attend to their grievance,” an official said.According to L&T, once it is repaired, the drinking water woes of Powdikkonam and Mannanthala area can be solved. "We implore the public, political parties and officials to cooperate with the work,” the contractor states on the flex board.And according to residents of the area, they have resorted to the step following the attitude of the officials.“The PWD ought to have repaired the work long back. We have been facing neglect for many years now,” a native pointed out.Now, it remains to be seen whether the plea of the contractor would be heard!