CHANDIGARH: With summer almost here, providing regular water supply with proper pressure will be a major challenge for the engineering wing of Chandigarh municipal corporation. Keeping this in mind, the authorities have identified low line areas of the city and are now constructing UGR (under ground reserve water tanks) to provide supply with good pressure.

The six UGRs are coming up in sectors 31, 29, 38, 46, 47 and 48. All these will be connected with tubewells so that people residing in upper floors receive adequate water supply in peak summer.

City mayorSubhash Chawla said, "Besides UGRs, we also plan to link some areas of the city with direct canal water but the exercise will take time. Installing UGRs will bring immediate relief by maintaining proper pressure at upper floors. Meanwhile, tubewell operators have already been instructed to keep alternative arrangements like additional batteries and standby motors, among others, to run the tubewells without any interruptions."

Mukesh Bassi, chairman of water supply and sewerage disposal committee of MC, said, "UGRs will provide instant supply, and once we have additional stored water it can be pumped any time to maintain pressure. Besides, the construction of additional tubewells is also under progress."

In the present scenario, the city is getting 87mgd (mega gallon/day) drinking water on a daily basis against a requirement of around 110mgd. Out of total 87mgd, city gets 67mgd from the Bhakra Dam and the remaining 20mgd from tubewells. Though, besides seeking more water from Punjab, civic body is also constructing around five new tubewells to meet with the water requirements of the city.