JOIN USNDMC plans 24-hr water supply
While the capital grapples with water shortage, Lutyens’ Delhi is likely to have uninterrupted 24x7 water supply in the next three years.
The tendering process will be complete in the next four months.
The New Delhi Municipal Council will carry out the project at a cost of Rs 153 crore. The project intends to improve and revamp the existing water supply system.
“The full implementation of the project will be achieved in approximately three years. The designing and processing of the project will start December onwards,” a senior official of the NDMC said.
The NDMC areas include Connaught Place, Mandir Marg, Gole Market, Parliament House, Sunheri Masjid, Moti Bagh and Kidwai Nagar, among others.
Also, 38 slum clusters exist under the jurisdiction of the NDMC.
“Currently, the duration of water supply lasts usually for three hours in morning and for around the same time in evening. Also, there is no equal water pressure in all the areas. The new project will not only ensure that water is supplied round-the-clock but also that there is adequate water pressure in all the areas,” the official said.
The total requirement of water in the NDMC area is 225 million litres per day (MLPD).
While the Delhi Jal Board supplies 115 MLD, the remaining 15 MLD is supplemented through deep tube wells of the council.
“The revamping of the water supply system will include taking measures to reduce non-revenue water, achieve service level benchmark and upgrade the infrastructure for 24x7 supply,” a chief engineer of the water supply unit said.
“The new system will be monitored through a centralised control room. The upgraded IT-infrastructure will be able to easily take notice if a particular area is not receiving adequate supply and bring it to the notice of the water supply department. This way, there will be parity in water supply to jhuggis and VIP zones alike,” the engineer added.
The NDMC had initially planned to carry out the project on a public-private partnership basis with the Delhi Jal Board.
“However, later we decided to carry out the project on our own. The operations and maintenance wil be handed over for a certain period to an executive agency after the tendering proces is complete,” the official said.
“The process of the pilot phase has been initiated. Bharti Nagar is the first area where the pilot project will be launched. The agenda of the project is to conserve water and to make it equally available in the entire NDMC area,” NDMC chairperson Jalaj Shrivastava said.