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Water Supply

Rs. 747-crore Water Metro to be commissioned in 2019

Wednesday, 06 December 2017 07:13 administrator
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The Hindu          06.12.2017  

Rs. 747-crore Water Metro to be commissioned in 2019

Tender to manufacture 78 modern ferries to be floated on December 31

The tender to manufacture 78 modern ferries for the Rs. 747-crore Water Metro project in the Greater Kochi area will be floated on December 31, and the project will be commissioned on April 14, 2019, A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), has said.

The material to be used (the body type) and the propulsion system are almost finalised. The tender will be finalised in March-April 2018. The first batch of ferries are most likely be deployed in the Ernakulam-West Kochi area, thus covering areas in the Smart Cities Mission. Cleaning of navigable waterbodies and canals would go hand in hand with the induction of the ferries, he said. Mr. Hanish is also the CEO of Cochin Smart Mission.

The project, a waterway extension of Kochi metro, envisages 78 fast, fuel-efficient ferries operating in 15 routes. The total distance covered will be 75 km, dotted by 38 jetties. All the ferries will be inducted by 2021.

“The project’s environment-impact assessment (EIA) report has been given (to the Centre). A high-level meeting was held recently to speed up acquisition of land to house jetties,” Mr. Hanish added, while addressing mediapersons here on Tuesday.

Officials of German funding agency KfW, which is lending 85 million Euros (appr. Rs. 585 crore) for Water Metro, too were present. They also visited sites on the corridor. They offered support to the Cochin Smart Mission. Another German delegation from GIZ, which has experts on urban transportation and sanitation, too is visiting Kochi.

Answering a question on augmenting non-ticketing revenue for Kochi metro, Mr. Hanish said that both exterior and interior of metro trains would shortly begin sporting advertisements. Metro sources said that a tender permitting ‘wrapping’ of commercial advertisements on the sides of each train and digital display of advertisements within trains would be awarded shortly. While metro pillars have begun to sport advertisements, they will soon be placed within metro stations too.

Efforts are also under way to garner revenue from station-naming rights, wherein the name of brands will suffix the name of metro stations. Talks are under way with PWD (which owns the land) to speed up development of an integrated (housing cum commercial and recreational) Metro City in 18 acres of land at Kakkanad. Yet another mode to get revenue (for metro’s operation and maintenance) was a Metro Village planned in over 100 acres of land at Muttom, Mr. Hanish said.

MoU inked

Earlier, KMRL inked an MoU with the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and Kochi Corporation, which specifies the modalities of maintaining the walkway cum cycle track at Panampilly Nagar for a period of five years. The metro agency thus gets revenue from film shooting and other sources for meeting its maintenance cost.

A committee that will be formed for monitoring and coordinating the maintenance will comprise nominees from each of the three agencies and also from residents’ associations.

C.N. Mohanan, Chairman of the GCDA, said that Kochi needed modern public infrastructure since it was readying to host Under-20 FIFA World Cup matches. Mr. Hanish was the nodal officer for Under-17 FIFA matches that the city hosted in November.

The project’s environment-impact assessment report has been given to the Centre

A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish

MD, KMRL

 

Dual piping and Linganmakki in BDA water plan

Tuesday, 28 November 2017 10:38 administrator
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The Hindu      28.11.2017 

Dual piping and Linganmakki in BDA water plan


However, its plan doesn’t mention rainwater harvesting, which is being seen as a major lacuna, while BWSSB is aggressively pursuing the same

The city, which is already water deficient, will have a crisis on its hands in less than two decades with a shortfall of approximately 2,000 million litres per day (MLD) of potable and non-potable water for domestic and industrial use.

In its Draft Revised Master Plan 2031, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has reduced the projected shortfall to around 850 MLD by making a case for a Dual Pipeline System, which allows for water to be recycled, and conservation. It also provides another solution: divert water from Linganamakki dam across the Sharavathi in Shivamogga district, over 430 km away, as proposed by the Tyagaraja Committee. However, this has been strongly contested by water conservation experts and farmers. According to water conservationists, the BDA’s projections are on the conservative side. “The water woes of the city in 2031, with over 20.03 million people, will be much worse than what the draft RMP 2031 predicts,” said S. Vishwanath, a water conservation expert. While for most megacities, the per capita water demand is 200 LPCD (multiplied by the total population), which includes industrial water demand as well, the draft RMP considers 135 LPCD for domestic (multiplied by the total population) and 90 LPCD (multiplied by the working population, which is taken as 60% of the total population) for non-domestic — estimates that will derail projects. The plan does not mention Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), a major lacuna, even as the BWSSB has begun aggressively pursuing RWH even for old buildings to reduce the per capita demand.

The draft plan relies on dual piping, for all new houses and the future population, through which recycled water will be supplied for all non-potable purposes. The goal is to harness 865 MLD of recycled water, and the excess can be used to recharge lakes and thereby ground water levels. With these measures, the BDA predicts that the shortfall will be reduced from about 2,000 MLD to 850 MLD, which can be met from the ground water table. But the city’s reliance on ground water will be 27% more than what it is today.

No mention of STP

Even as the draft plan heavily relies on recycled water for demand reduction, it is silent on the sewerage network and Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) infrastructure needed by 2031. The draft plan simply recommends an expansion of BWSSB services for the entire Bengaluru Metropolitan Area (BMA).

 

SDMC to install 100 water ATMs

Wednesday, 19 July 2017 00:00 administrator
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The Times of India       19.07.2017  

SDMC to install 100 water ATMs

NEW DELHI: After NDMC, South Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated a project to install 100 water ATMs and 100 mobile toilet vans across its area.

The move has come after LG Anil Baijal held a meeting with the civic bodies last month and directed them to ensure that water ATMs are installed across Delhi at the earliest and are maintained properly.

Senior officials claimed that the tender has been floated and once installed, people can get chilled filtered water for just Rs 2 (250ml). "Paper glasses will be available at every water ATM. If someone wants to fill their bottle, they will have to pay Rs 5 per litre," a senior official said.

As a pilot project, SDMC had installed its first water ATM in Defence Colony Market last month. "The response was good and we decided to expand the services across our jurisdiction. In Defence Colony Market, every day about 300 glasses of water are sold. Once these ATMs are installed, people will not have to buy packaged bottle any more," he said.

The machine will have a capacity of 5,000 litres of RO water along with a provision for dumping paper glasses. As per the tender, every vendor has to ensure that glasses and any other kind of waste accumulated near the ATMs are cleared on a daily basis.

SDMC has identified 20-25 points in four zones — central, south, Najafgarh and west — for the installation and the tendering process. "The space for placing water ATMs will be provided by SDMC," added the senior official.
 
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