The city, now mainly dependent upon the river Krishna to meet the drinking water needs, is all set to get rid of the woes on a permanent basis with work on a Rs. 40-crore project to augment supply from the Obul Reddy Gundalakamma reservoir beginning on Wednesday.
Ongole MLA and TDP Prakasam district unit president D. Janardhana Rao, who laid the foundation stone, said: “24 x 7 water supply will be introduced once the pipeline work for a distance of 9 km from Yedugundlapadu to the Summer Storage tank II is completed.”
The project has been taken up as uncertainty looms over release of water from Nagarjunasagar in the wake of the bifurcation of the State, said Ongole Municipal Commissioner S. Venkatakrishna.
The denizens get drinking water on alternate days and the rationing goes up to once in five days till the two summer storage tanks and the Rangarayaduchervu — which takes care of the drinking water requirement — get replenishment from the river Krishna.
The State government has allotted 0.7 tmcft from the Gundalakamma reservoir to the city.
The project has been designed taking into account the dwindling inflows into the reservoirs fed by the catchment areas of the river Krishna in the upper riparian States of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“'The pipeline has been designed to carry 850 million litres of water,” said Municipal Engineer Dasari Srinivasa Rao. It would be completed in about 5 months, added Public Works Deputy Engineer Sundara Rami Reddy.
Detailed project report
The civic body has submitted to the Centre a detailed project report for a Rs.395-crore drinking water scheme with 18 Elevated Level Service Reservoirs (ELSRs) to meet the needs of the expanding city till 2050 under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). As the grounding of this project may be delayed, a Rs. 90-crore project to lay a pipeline from Gundlakamma to Yedugundlapadu would be taken up under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) soon, said Mr. Venkatakrishna.