Bhubaneswar, March 13: Tardy pace of land acquisition has affected the city’s Rs 754.23-crore integrated sewerage system project.

The mega project requires 214.23 acres to lay a 412-km sewer line and construct six sewerage treatment plants. However, only 78.81 acres have been acquired till date. This has cast a shadow over the feasibility of the project’s scheduled completion by February 2015.

The project to build an integrated sewer mechanism was taken up in 2006 to streamline the city’s sewerage system by 2012.

But, the deadline kept changing because of delay in land acquisition. First, it was extended to December 2013 and now to February 2015.

While the Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board is ready to float tenders for constructing four sewerage treatment plants, land is available to set up only two.

Land on which the third plant will be built remains in private possession despite the owners taking compensation in lieu of the acres.

However, only a small portion of land could be acquired for the fourth plant.

Senior project engineer of the Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board B.K. Parida said: “We are ready to start work for at least three sewerage treatment plants. Land has already been acquired for the plants at Basuaghai, Ebaranga-Kochilaput and Meherpalli. The acquisition process is progressing well at Rokad-Gadakana. Three days ago, we have acquired 32 acres at Meherpalli.”

Sources at the Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board admitted that many people who had collected their compensation were still occupying land meant for the plant at Meherpalli, while at Rokad -Gadakana, less than 15 per cent of the required acres had been acquired.

“If we do not have adequate land, the contractor will not be able to build the plants. We have already floated a tender for the Paikrapur sewer pipeline, which is 17km long. Once work starts, a treatment plant will also come up there easily. But as the cost of land has gone up drastically because of development of many housing projects in the area in the past year, some resistance may come up from the public during the land acquisition drive,’’ said an engineer of the board.

Till today, the board has been able to lay only 147km of the proposed 412km pipeline.

“If the pipeline laying job is ready but the treatment plants are not built, the city will not get any benefit from the central government-funded scheme. It will be a very bizarre situation,’’ said urban management practitioner Piyush Ranjan Rout.

Once complete, the much-hyped project will cover an area spanning over 145sqkm in Bhubaneswar.

Though the biggest sewerage treatment plant will come at the city’s Rokad-Gadakana area, it will be administered by the Odisha Integrated Sanitation Improvement Project, Cuttack.

Engineers of the civic authorities and the public works department have also expressed concern over the delay as the roads were getting damaged because of sewerage work. However, the state government has asked the sewerage board to include road repair expenses within the project cost.