Maha Minister admits sub-standard work in construction of dam

Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan today said contractors, who constructed the gravity-based Temghar dam, which has started developing serious leakages, will be taken to task.
"The government would recover the damages caused from the contractors Ms Progressive constructions and Ms Srinivasa constructions," Mahajan told reporters at the state Secretariat here.
"The contractors had given an assurance on affidavit that they would bear the cost of any damages to the dam," said the Minister.
"The dam has been constructed using sub-standard quality material. Soon after the reports about the leakage surfaced I ordered an inquiry and asked the department to submit a detailed report," Mahajan said, adding to plug the leakages, the government will require Rs 103 crore.

The Temghar dam, is an earth-fill, gravity-based dam on the Mutha river near Mulshi in Pune district. It is one of the dams which supplies water to the Pune city.
Fears were raised about the possibility of a dam burst like the Panshet dam in Pune district in 1961.

Construction work on the Temghar dam began in 1997 and it was completed in 2012 at a cost of Rs 237 crore.
Temghar dam has a total storage capacity of 3.71 TMC.
As per the Minister, orders have been issued to file criminal cases against the contractors and officials.
Mahajan further said if the contractors were found to be still engaged in any construction activity their work will be stopped immediately.

"Since the contractors had not applied for renewal of their licenses and hailed from Andhra Pradesh, it is difficult to blacklist them," he said.
Meanwhile, Mahajan clarified that Pune-based builder Avinash Bhosale was not involved in the construction of the dam.