Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Sabarimala, Pampa may not get sewage treatment plants this year

Noxious waste:Waste flowing from the toilets and other outlets in the Malikappuram area at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam during the previous Makaravilakku festival. The waste ultimately reaches the Pampa through the Njunangar stream.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The much-needed sewage treatment plant at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam is unlikely to come up this year, leaving the hill exposed to an alarming flow of sewage and other harmful waste from toilet blocks, hotels, messes, prasadam preparation units and so on during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage.

The Kerala Water Authority has been allegedly lax in setting up a plant each at the Sannidhanam and Pampa under the Pampa Action Plan. The Travancore Devaswom Board has reportedly expressed its apprehension over the delay.

Last September, the authority invited tenders from class-A contractors for building a plant with a capacity to treat 1.5 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage at Pampa and another with a capacity to treat 5 mld at the Sannidhanam, estimated at Rs.40 crore. But the officials stayed away from taking initiatives to get the plants built.

There have been allegations that “commercial interests and a partisan attitude of certain quarters in the authority” have been delaying the project.

The tender submission date was September 14, 2009 and four bidders expressed interest in building the proposed plant at Pampa and three in the one at the Sannidhanam.

The first presentation on the technical bid was held in Thiruvananthapuram on December 8, 2009. The Chief Engineer of the authority and various other officials participated. A second presentation was held on April 23, 2010. The Managing Director of the authority and senior officials of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and the Devaswom Board participated.

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