Indian Express 23.04.2010
GMADA does its bit to augment water supply
Express News Service Tags : GMADA, water Posted: Friday , Apr 23, 2010 at 0024 hrs
Mohali: Keeping in view the widening gap between availability and demand of potable water in Mohali, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has begun work to install 10 new tubewells in different parts of the city. Accepting the request of the Mohali Municipal Council (MC), which had expressed inability to augment water supply due to fund crunch, the GMADA has released Rs 352.29 lakh to augment one MGD water in Mohali.Following the formal nod from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is also the GMADA Chairman, the authority has also finalised the sites for installation of the tubewells, a senior official said. According to the decision taken at the sixth meeting of the GMADA Board of Directors, chaired by Badal recently, a new tubewell each would be installed in Phase 3B1, VII, IV, IX, I and Sector 70, while two tubewells each will be installed in Phase X and XI.
Mohali is short of seven MGD (million gallons daily) water for drinking purposes and this figure shoots up to 10 MGD in peak summer (May to July). At present, 28 tube-wells and Kajauli water quench thirst of over three lakh residents settled in 23.86 square km area divided in 31 wards with 10 over head supply reservoirs (OHSRs), two with two lakh gallons and eight with one lakh gallon capacity. One of them has been out of order since long.
Besides 10 MGD canal water, 3.2 MGD water was supplied from tube-wells. Even though the peak summer is yet to commence, water problems are already haunting Mohali. The only long-term solution to install Phase V and VI Kajauli waterworks, which will supply 40 MGD canal water, seems a distant dream as GMADA, while citing shortage of funds to undertake the project approved exclusively for Mohali, had referred the project to Centre for funding under JNNURM.
As the thirst of Mohali and its satellite towns Kharar, Kurali and Nayagaon is aggravating with each passing day, the official indifference has doubled the initial estimated project cost of Rs 65 crore in the last four years, even after the land to lay canal water supply lines from Kajauli to Mohali had been acquired long ago.
