Repair work in progress at Collectorate Ghat and (below) a littered Buddha Ghat in Patna on Monday. Pictures by Ashok Sinha and Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Oct. 24: Chhath is just a week away, but majority of the 82 ghats where its rituals are performed in the city are in a shambles. A day after chief minister Nitish Kumar set 48 hours deadline to clean them up, the administration failed to start work at half of them.

Forget Nitish’s deadline, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) in all likelihood would fail to make the ghats spick and span before the biggest festival of Bihar. PMC sources said the clean-up work had been started at half of the ghats.

Additional PMC commissioner (planning and development) Chandrama Singh claimed that sanitation and cleaning of ghats had begun in every circle of the corporation but denied receiving any official communication regarding the 48-hour deadline Nitish had set yesterday after inspecting the ghats.

Singh said: “It is difficult to complete the work within 48 hours. The main arrangements can be made only after Diwali, when filth and slush is cleared from the ghats. Moreover, we have not received any official communication regarding the deadline.”

The PMC official, however, assured citizens of making all the necessary arrangements at the ghats before Chhath. “Barring Sipahi Ghat near Collectorate Ghat and a few others, work has started on almost all other ghats in the city. Sipahi Ghat is very dangerous and probably the water resources department will take up its cleaning work to ensure proper arrangement for devotees there. The state government has to decide on that,” said Singh.

“There are 14, 20 and 48 ghats in New Capital, Bankipore and Patna City circle of PMC, respectively. An estimate of Rs 11.21 lakh has been made to spruce up the ghats in the New Capital circle. Rs 6.2 lakh would be spent in Bankipore and Rs 22.74 lakh for the ghats in Patna City circle. Different agencies have been given assignments to make all the necessary arrangements at the ghats for Chhath Puja. Within a few days everything would be in place. We are also in the process of making safety arrangements for devotees,” he said.

Singh said Patna Electric Supply Undertaking had been paid Rs 3.4 lakh for making lighting arrangements at the ghats. “In addition to this, 16 high-mast lights have been put up at the Chhath ghats. More such lamps would be installed after Diwali.”

He added: “Several engineers have been deputed to keep tabs on the progress of work at the ghats. We have allotted 10 labourers each for big ghats and five for smaller ones in addition to the labourers being used by the private contractors.”

While Singh is confident about getting the ghats ready for devotees before Chhath, some officials of the civic body appeared iffy on the issue.

“For the first time, Chhath ghat clean-up work has started so late. Work has not started at all the ghats yet. Even last year, when the work had got delayed because of the Assembly elections, the situation was not this bad,” said an official of the corporation.

He said the unprecedented situation was the fallout of the denial of 12 contractors to take up any work of the corporation till their outstanding bills were cleared.

“The clean-up work has started at some important Ganga banks like Collectorate Ghat, Pehalwan Ghat and Gai Ghat. But Buddha Ghat, Maharani Ghat and those near Patna College are still unattended. With just a few days left before the festival, we might fail to make all the arrangements properly,” he admitted.