Cash crunch to halt water, sewage work in Delhi, says Kapil Mishra

All water and sewage projects in Delhi will come to a standstill if the cash crunch continues due to demonetisation, Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra said on Thursday.

Mishra said if the situation continues like this for more than a month, then preparations for water supply during the next summer may be affected.

“The next 10 days are very crucial,” he said. 

Mishra’s comments came after an urgent meeting to review all ongoing water and sewage projects in the light of demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

“There’s been a massive setback to all ongoing projects. Petty contractors and labourers are worst affected. Labour availability has also been hit massively and all workshop-related and repair work has come to a grinding halt,” Mishra said.

He said no new tenders can be floated in this scenario as banks were busy due to extra workload of replacing the spiked currencies.

Mishra will conduct another review of the projects next week.