The Times of India            28.11.2013  

MC wakes up to plan for greenery in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: City residents may now heave a sigh of relief, as the Municipal Corporation has approached top shots of the city to maintain parks and provide green spaces in the city. The startling pollution figures issued by the World Health Organization for the industrial city have forced the civic body to take some steps to improve the condition of parks in the entire city. Almost all the parks under MC are lying in a dilapidated condition with no effort to maintain them. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked leading tycoons of the city to join hands with the civic body to make the parks greener and develop their infrastructure.

MC's prolonged focus on only works related to roads in the city " widening, construction, and maintenance " had led to a one-sided development of the city, resulting in a big neglect of the city parks. The parks and green area project has been designed to improve the parks and green areas along the road, and improve the overall environment of the city. There are a total of 700 parks in the city, with the two major parks being Rakh Bagh and Rose Garden. Instructions have been issued to Ernst & Young to check the condition of major parks, and put in order a comprehensive report in a period of three months, which will help the authorities focus on the exact shortcomings of these two parks. At the same time, guidelines have also been issued to the municipal corporation by the MC Commissioner to maintain a report of the remaining parks within a period of one month.

"The maintenance of the parks, which is done by the park management committees, will be taken back if there are shortcomings in any of the parks allotted to them. Municipal corporation pays a maintenance cost to these committees, and any loophole in the maintenance will definitely result in taking back the park"s charge by the MC," said Rahul Tiwari, MC commissioner.

But considering the MC"s poor financial condition, a joint venture has been decided, in which the city"s leading businessmen will support the purpose of making the city clean and green. The salaries of people employed at the parks will be paid by these magnates.

"A step by the industrialists will definitely be taken to make a difference", said Kamal Oswal, industrial adviser to the Deputy CM, as well as managing director at Nahar Industrial Enterprises.

The Indian Express             25.11.2013

Civic body to use recycled sewage water for gardens

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, which had so far been maintaining its 200-odd gardens with bore well water, has come up with a pilot plan to recycle sewage water to meet their needs. A prototype plant has been operating in Naranpura area for the past one month.

According to Municipal Commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra, the pilot plant, having a capacity to process 10,000 litres of waste water a day, was set up by a private firm free of cost. Once this plant is fully operational, it will do away with bore well water for watering its gardens and nurseries as well as roadside plantations across the city.

The plant, set up over a less than 40 sq m area, is located near Navdeep Hall in Naranpura. The quality of water after tertiary treatment is below 10 mg per litre.

Explaining the process, Mohapatra said that the raw sewage would be taken from manholes of main trunk line to the storage tank, where three zones have been formed in closed tanks. Of the three zones, solid particles would be removed in the first zone. On reaching the second zone, water would be aerated before removing dissolved oxygen and conducting biological process. Suspended particles are settled in the third zone and suspended particles are removed.

"The recycled water would be chlorinated and then disinfected. This water is odorless, nutritious and ready for use," he said. He said that use of this recycled water will save both ground water and an estimated 40 units of power (worth Rs 200 a day), which amounts to around Rs 73,000 per year. Most importantly, this water is nutritious for plants. Use of this water will also reduce movement of water and its pressure on the main drainage lines This will also reduce movement of the quantity of sewage water via pipelines.