The Hindu 12.08.2013
24×7 water supply for all 55 wards in Gulbarga city
Special Correspondent
Water to be drawn from Bhima and Bennethora rivers
Qamar-ul Islam, Minister for Municipalities and Local
Bodies and Wakf, has said that a decision has been taken to go ahead
with the decision to extend 24×7 drinking water supply to all the 55
wards in Gulbarga city with the existing sources of Bhima and Bennethora
rivers and put on hold the proposal for drawing the entire water
required for the supply of the drinking water from Bennethora River.
Mr. Islam held a review meeting of the development works taken up in Gulbarga on Sunday.
He told
The Hindu
that directions have been issued to construct additional filter bed with
a capacity to filter 50 MLD of water in addition to the existing filter
beds at Shor Gumbuz, old filter bed and at Kotnur to meet the entire
requirement of 120 MLD of water for 24×7 supply. Decision on the agency
that will implement the project would be taken later.
The
first priority would be to increase the filtering capacity and
construction of overhead and ground level tanks to store water, and
connect all of them for orderly and uninterrupted 24×7 water supply.
The
government has allocated Rs. 1,760 crore for the implementation of 24×7
drinking water supply project in Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Gulbarga
cities. A team from TATA Consultancy Services have been given the
responsibility to prepare line estimates and project proposal. As per
the rough estimates made by the team, Rs. 300 crore would be required to
create basic infrastructure for extension of 24×7 drinking water supply
scheme to all localities.
At present, 11 wards in Gulbarga city are covered under the 24×7 drinking water supply scheme.
Another proposal
There
was also another proposal for drawing the entire drinking water
requirement of the Gulbarga city from Bennethora River by constructing a
barrage across the river in the backwaters of the Bennethora Dam and
construction of a new filter bed with a capacity of 120 MLD and pump the
water to different localities. Estimated cost of the project was put at
Rs. 500 crore and Mr. Islam said this project would be considered as an
alternative for a long-term measure to meet the drinking water
requirement of the city.
To a query, Mr. Islam said
that the government has given its nod for construction of a modern 40
MLD sewage treatment plant in addition to the existing 27 MLD oxidation
plant and also construct 20 MLD sewage treatment plant at Kotnur to
prevent letting into Bhima river the untreated sewage water generated in
Gulbarga city.
And, the UGD would be interlinked for facilitating treatment of sewage generated in the city.
