The long-pending demand for providing round-the-clock drinking water to Raichur gained momentum with Minister For Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake laying the foundation stone for the project here on Monday. The Rs. 117-crore project is being implemented under the Asian Development Bank-assisted North Karnataka Urban Sector Investment Project (NKUSIP).
While the State government and City Municipal Council bear 10 per cent of the project cost each, the rest is taken care of by the bank. The estimated time for completing the project is two and a half years. As per the agreement, a Gurgaon-based company, which has bagged the contract, will have to maintain the project for another 5 years after the completion.
The project includes a jackwel, an 11-km rising main (main water supply pipe of 800 mm diameter), purification plant and water-distribution network in the city. Raichur’s current consumption of drinking water is 35 million litres per day (MLD) and the project is designed to supply 45 MLD taking into account the increase in consumption in the next ten years. The existing water supply system would completely be replaced by the new project with new machinery, equipments and other material.
The Minister said that providing clean drinking water to people in urban areas was a top priority in his department. “The fact that most of diseases are water borne is why we made providing safe drinking water to people a top priority. We will come up with round-the-clock drinking water supply projects in all other cities to ensure that nobody suffers from insufficient supply of clean drinking water,” he said.
The Minister also announced that an Underground Drainage System would soon be implemented at the cost of Rs. 62 crore in the city.
“We have also allocated Rs. 2.24 crore for developing Aam Talab Lake. A proposal to develop five slums in the city has been sent to Union government seeking financial assistance of Rs. 38.25 crore under Rajiv Awas Yojana,” he said.
