The Naag River Pollution Abatement Project is finally on track as the much awaited appointment of Project Management Consultant (PMC) was finalised by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD). M/s Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd. that has formed joint venture with M/s NJS Engineers India Pvt Ltd., Mumbai; M/s CTI Engineering International Co. Ltd., Japan, and M/s EPTISA Servicios de Ingenireria, Bengaluru, and they won the bid among four shortlisted companies. NRCD conveyed the approval to NMC on September 3. It may be remembered that Union Budget had allocated Rs. 500 crore for Naag River project Now only a formal agreement remains to be inked between Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), NCRD and Tata led JV to formally start the much delayed work on pollution abatement and restore the river form which the city got its identity. The job of the PMC is to carry of detailed survey, design of sewerage network in Northern and Central zones of the city prior to calling of tender for laying of new trunk lines.

 

The consultant would be responsible to check if the proposed works are in sync with works being carried out under AMRUT 2.0 in the Southern Zone. Further the project also involved construction of sewage treamtnet plants (STPs), three in number at Shankar Nagar, Mor Bhavan and Martin Nagar with capacity to treatment 72 million unit litres water per day. Due to administrative delays the cost of project has reached Rs 2,117.54 crore wherein State Government contribution is 60 per cent, State Government 25 per cent and NMC 5 per cent.

 

The project cost has been on upswing due to delay in finalisation of PMC and prior to that the agency to finance the project. Finally Government of India gave clearance for securing project cost from JICA and the original cost in this period rose from original Rs 241.1 crore to nearly Rs 2,000 crore. Its the NMC that will be hit hard as its revenue base is very limited and rising project cost puts heavy burden on resources. The Request for Proposal was issued to the four shortlisted consultants in the month of January 2024. Only two agencies participated in the discussion and after technical evaluation the same was submitted to NRCD in the month of March 2024. After approval to technical evaluation was received in the month of April 2024, NMC went forward with financial evaluation. While M/s Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd (with JV) had quoted Rs 87.12 crore (excluding GST). M/s SMEC International Pvt Ltd (in JV) had quoted Rs. 104.42 crore. M/s Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd (in JV) were called for negotiation and the final offer submitted by them is Rs. 68.56 crore. Accordingly letter of acceptance has been issued to M/s Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd (in JV) by NMC and successful bidder along with its associates are expected to come to city for signing of the agreement.