With several big water supply initiatives in the pipeline, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has decided to form project implementation units (PIU) at its headquarters and in the districts to ensure their speedy completion.
The decision has come at a time when the State-run water utility is preparing to embark on a number of water supply projects with funding from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and under the Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI), in addition to Asian Development Bank-funded projects for Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram (ADB) and the centrally assisted Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) for providing water connections to rural households.
According to a June 30 order issued by KWA Managing Director Venkatesapathy S., the KWA has several ongoing water supply projects in almost all districts.
In various stages
“The projects are under different stages of completion and many other big projects are in the pipeline as part of AMRUT, KIIFB, RKI, ADB and JJM,” the order said.
The PIUs will be formed at the KWA headquarters and in the districts. At Jala Bhavan, the KWA headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the PIU will consist of a three-member committee headed by the Chief Engineer (Projects and Operations) and a five-member core committee which would have the Executive Engineer (Planning-1) as convener.
The Chief Engineer-level committee will meet once a month and the core committee, twice a month, for monitoring and analysis. The core committee will also ensure necessary inputs to the Chief Engineer-level committee. Analysis, monitoring and reporting would have to be done by the PIU core committee, the KWA said in the order.
16 project divisions
At the district level, the PIUs will be headed by Superintending Engineers. The KWA has 16 project divisions across 12 districts. The KWA has also decided to form virtual teams to assist the PIUs at the district level. In all, 16 virtual teams will be constituted with a technical assistant/head draftsman as the convener of each team. The virtual teams will be made up of two to three officers.
