Jammu: A Jammu and Kashmir BJP minister on Sunday said the artificial lake project in Jammu will be constructed as per the plan and will not be abandoned.
“The lake project will not be abandoned,” BJP Minister Sukhnandan Chowdhary, replying to a question, told reporters at BJP Headquarters here.
Earlier, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had hinted of shelving the lake project on Tawi in Jammu terming it as “not feasible”.
“The lake will be constructed as per the plan and it would not only be used for recreational purposes, but also the water will be used for irrigation of the villages at the tail end of the Ranbir Canal,” the minister said.
“The project of the construction of the artificial lake over river Tawi in Jammu has not been shelved, it will be constructed as per the plan,” said the State Minister for Public Health and Engineering and Irrigation.
Chowdhary said he was in Delhi a day ago and had discussed the issue with Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati who had assured full cooperation of her department for the completion of the project.
Accusing the Opposition of making a mountain out of a molehill, the minister said that no proposal of shelving the lake project was ever discussed.
“Nobody ever said that the lake project would be cancelled, the Chief Minister had just said that the auxiliary work on the lake was not viable as envisioned by the previous government,” he said.
While raising question mark on the quality of work done so far, the minister said that his office would order an enquiry into the “sub standard” work done so far.
“How come the pillars developed bends, this shows the quality of work done by the previous government. So far more than Rs 55 crore have been spent on the project, the total cost of the project was at Rs 79.70 crore, we now expect that there will be escalation in the overall cost,” he said.
Sayeed, during an informal interaction with media on 15th May, had indicated the shelving of under-construction artificial lake project in Jammu, saying that it was not “feasible”.
“As for as lake project is concerned, I will tell you economically and technically it is not feasible,” Mufti had said.
“Water flow is not like that of Chenab or Ravi rivers. It will take one year to fill and that is not feasible,” he had said, adding that “but you can undertake landscaping of the river banks and make it beautiful and attractive”.