Groaning under the burden of the 30 per cent contribution of the urban local body for projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and facing a financial crunch, GVMC is exploring the option of PPP mode for two major water projects.
One of them is the Raiwada project from which a pipeline is proposed to be laid at a cost of Rs.370 crore. The State-level monitoring committee has cleared it to be taken up with the spillover funds under which Rs.1250 crore has been apportioned to the mission cities in the State.
The Raiwada pipeline project has been sanctioned Rs.300 crore. The 58-km pipeline from Raiwada project to the filtration plant at Narava is expected to totally reduce loss due to evaporation and other natural factors and pilferage. As of now, of the 27 mgd released at Raiwada, only 16 mgd is being realised. “GVMC is no position to foot the 30 per cent cost. Now we plan to involve industries so that they can foot the cost and utilise 10 mgd of the water,” highly placed sources told The Hindu . After a presentation at the Central Monitoring and Sanctioning Committee meeting in Delhi, a 24X7 water scheme with a cost of Rs.290 crore has been sanctioned for the northwest part of the city falling under Visakhapatnam North MLA Tyanala Vijay Kumar’s constituency.
GVMC, which faced shortage of funds, has sought the State government’s approval to take up the project in PPP mode. The private party that foots the corporation share will be allowed to realise its investment from the saving of water by introducing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and other such methods, say sources. A DPR has been prepared indicating the period required for management by the private party. The government has to recommend PPP mode and send it to the central committee.
