Bottled water woes continue

He alleged the KWA officials have not yet paid the full amount promised during the trial run.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Aruvikkara Water Bottling plant, mooted by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and scheduled to be launched this month, will be further delayed owing to the tussle between the contractor and the KWA authorities. The contractor is not taking interest in submitting the documents to BIS and FSSAI, KWA officials said.

A Noushad, executive engineer of Aruvikkara Water Bottling Plant said the water bottles will be launched as soon as BIS and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) provides the approval. "Hi-Tech Sweet Water Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Gujarat is responsible for receiving the clearance from BIS and FSSAI.

The contractor is not taking interest in submitting the documents to BIS and FSSAI," Noushad added. Hi-Tech Sweet Water Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the contractor for the project, said they have already forwarded the documents for approval to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). However, KWA officials deny their claim However, a higher official from Hi-Tech Sweet Water Technologies said the documents required for the BSI was given to them only by the end of January. "We submitted it online as soon as we received the documents," he said.

He alleged the KWA officials have not yet paid the full amount promised during the trial run. "Our company has received only Rs 3.94 crore of Rs 5.5 crore till date," he said. Meanwhile, KWA officials denied the claims by the contractor that the trial run has been conducted. "A test run was held in the absence of electricity in a diesel-operated-engine.

That cannot be considered as a trial run," he said.

Speaking on the due amount to be paid, KWA officials said they plan to pay Rs 1 crore after the commissioning of the project, while the remaining 50 lakhs will be given after three years of warranty period."The official inauguration of the plant will probably be held before Lok Sabha elections but the launch of the plant will be delayed till we receive the clearance from BIS and FSSAI," said Noushad. 

Aruvikkara project

So far, the government has spent Rs 13.4 crore on the project. The bottling plant is designed to produce 7,500 litres of water per hour.

Kerala Water Supply and Sewerage Act were amended for the project in 2008.

The foundation stone was laid in June 2010 by former Water Resources Minister N K Premachandran. It was initially delayed due to non-participation of bidders for tender. Comptroller and Auditor General of India Report in 2013 criticised KWA for the delay in implementation of the project.

It was revived in 2015 after it floated the tender in three packages - civil, electrical and mechanical. 

The work resumed in 2016. Water Resource Minister K Krishnankutty promised the project will be launched soon. Again, the minister reiterated the project will be launched in March.

Recently, difference of opinion has arisen among the contractor and the KWA officials regarding procedural clearance from the BIS and FSSAI.