The Hindu 12.08.2013
24x7 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 24x7 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 24x7 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 24x7 water supply.
The government has allocated Rs. 1,760 crore for the implementation of 24x7 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 24x7 drinking water supply scheme to all localities.
At present, 11 wards in Gulbarga city are covered under the 24x7 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.
