Pune: The much-delayed Bhama Askhed water supply project is set to gather pace as the civic administration is contemplating changes in the work schedule.Nearly 70% of the work for the jackwell has been completed. The remaining work will be carried out in three shifts, with the express aim of finish them at the earliest.A group of corporators, including members of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s standing committee, visited the site to review the project’s progress. The decision to streamline the workflow to complete the project in quick-time was taken during the tour.“The work will be done in three shifts,” said standing committee chairman Yogesh Mulik. “It will help in increasing the speed of construction of the jackwell,” Mulik added.The total cost of the project is Rs380 crore, while the administration has spent around Rs280 crore on it already. The aim of the project is to improve the water supply to areas located along the Ahmednagar Road. The PMC will draw nearly 2.8 TMC of water from this dam, benefiting more than 14 lakh people.“We are planning to construct a channel for discharge of the water from the jackwell. Controlled blasts are to be carried out near the jackwell to develop the channel. This will start in two days’ time,” said V G Kulkarni, head of PMC’s water department.The project had run into trouble in October 2015, when local farmers had opposed it over issues like land price and compensation. The agitators ha halted the laying of the water supply pipeline. The PMC officials had made a couple of attempts to restart the work, but to no avail.After the inordinate delay of two-and-a-half years, the PMC had revised the deadline to July 2019. The project cost has also escalated by Rs14 crore due to the delay.

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