The move to start work from April 18 for digging a channel to bring the Ganga closer to Patna may get delayed though the state government has made a commitment for the same in Patna High Court.

Monday (April 13) was the last date for submission of bids for this work and officials in the water resources department claimed that it would take at least one more week for technical and financial evaluation of the bids received.

Sources claimed that the work was not likely to start before the last week of April. "The last date for submission of bids for this work was on Monday. The submitted bids would be opened on Wednesday, which would be followed by their technical and financial evaluation before issuing the work order to the selected firm. This process normally takes at least a week but we are trying to wind it up at the earliest," said a senior engineer in the department's Patna division.

Experts are irked at the lack of promptness among the authorities to start the work. "Revival of the Ganga is a serious issue and if the authorities take it lightly then it would lead to nothing else than waste of time and money. Changing the course of the river is a cumbersome process and requires utmost accuracy and alertness," said R.K. Sinha, professor of zoology at Patna University, who has worked extensively on the Ganga and Gangetic Dolphin.

The exercise of digging up new channel to restore the original course of Ganga has been taken up in the wake of recent intervention by Patna High Court in this matter. The high court, during the hearing of a PIL (based on a report by Patna district and sessions judge) on March 4 had directed authorities concerned, including the state and central government agencies, to restore the original course of the Ganga.

During hearing of the PIL on April 6 before the division bench of Chief Justice L. Narasimha Reddy and Justice Ashwani Kumar Singh, principal additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore submitted an affidavit on behalf of the state government, the schedule in which stated that the work on digging the new channel would start from April 18 and likely to get completed by June 15.

The tender for digging the 7.1km long and 30m wide channel on the bank of the Ganga along Patna between Kali Ghat and Digha Ghat to bring the river nearer to the city was floated by the water resources department on April 13. An estimated outlay of Rs 8.50 crore is expected to be utilised on construction of the new channel.

RJD leader Jagdanand Singh, who was water resources department minister in the Rabri Devi government in 1997-98, when earlier attempt to dig- up a new channel was made, claimed that red tape was one of the biggest reasons for failure of that attempt.

"Making an attempt to shift the course of Ganga is not an easy work. Last time as well, neither the state government nor the Inland Waterways Authority of India took an interest in conducting the dredging exercise in the new channel after it was dug. As a result, it got filled with silt. Thus, if the state government and the officials do not take up this work seriously this time, then it would turn out to be another futile attempt," he said.