Is river dredging still a pipedream?

GUWAHATI: The Water Resources department has failed to procure any 'river dredger' for more than two years now. This is despite the fact that the Revenue and Disaster Management department had accorded its administrative approval of Rs 18 crore for its procurement under the SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) during fiscal 2017-18.

As a result, river dredging has still remained a dream in the State.

A dredger is needed for corrective dredging of rivers and their tributaries in both the Brahmaputra and the Barak valleys, claimed department sources.

In fact, though the Water Resources department had floated tenders twice, but found no bidders. In response to its third attempt, a company expressed its interest to the department's global tender. This company was also issued the order to supply a river dredger whose cost was estimated to be around Rs 18 crore.

However, the company has not yet supplied the dredger since it has not received the advance amount of Rs 13 crore as was agreed to between the department and the company.

The reason for the department's failure to pay the mentioned advance amount to the shortlisted company is that the Finance department has not given its nod.