Row ends,work on water data centre to start in Dec

The centre is also important as groundwater figures are dismal in the state — 103 blocks fall under the over-exploited category,five under critical and four are semi-critical. Besides,at present,there is no system to check the quality of water in Punjab,which has become the cancer capital due to the high content of pesticides in groundwater.

It will have an automatic system to record groundwater level,its quality,rainfall and river gauging. A senior official in the irrigation department said that validation of data will be done with the help of central agencies. The record of all hydrological parametres will be available to the general public and water resource planners under one roof,but the rate to be charged for it has not yet been fixed. “It will be decided as per the Centre’s policy,” he said.

According to sources,the project,which was planned in 2006,was hanging balance because the department was unable to select architects as per the conditions of the World Bank. Initially,when a panel of architects selected by the government was sent to the World Bank,it rejected it and reportedly asked to follow proper procedure. A few months ago,again an advertisement was issued and over 10 applications were forwarded to the bank. But the panel was again disapproved.

Asserting that they have ended the controversy by deciding not to appoint any private firm,a senior department official said: “The architects had been repeatedly complaining about the panels forwarded by us,so we decided to end the row by engaging services of the chief architect.”

Meanwhile,the delay has escalated the cost of the Punjab’s component from Rs 41 crore to Rs 60 crore. A provision of Rs 15 crore was made in the Annual Plan for 2006-07,out of which,Rs 3 crore was provided as the cost of land for the construction of Water Resources Bhawan (state data centre) at Sector 68 in Mohali. The land was allotted by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority.