Maharashtra Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Babanrao Lonikar said that Mission Bhagiratha will be replicated in Marathwada region to address the water problem.
He said that this scheme would be discussed in their cabinet shortly and requested the officials to present details of the scheme so that it would be easy for him to explain his colleagues.
Along with a team of officials, Mr. Babanrao visited ongoing Mission Bhagiratha works at Peddareddypet near Singoor Project. Spending about an hour, the Minister enquired as to how the programme was planned and being implemented.
During his visit to the Singoor Dam he also asked as to how the existing drinking water schemes were integrated with the Mission Bhagiratha.
Later, speaking to reporters Mr. Babanrao said that it was amazing to see that the newly formed Telangana was able to make a progress on planning and implementation of schemes like Mission Bhagiratha within a short period of one year.
“We are having drought for the past three years and drinking water has became scarce commodity. We have to supply water to areas like Marathwada and to Lathur in tankers and sometimes even in trains. Groundwater level in eight districts of Marathwada region fell to as low as 1,000 feet. We have used 4,000 tankers to supply drinking water and about Rs. 600 crore was spent for this purpose,” said Mr. Babanrao.
The Minister said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had sent them here to study Mission Bhagiratha Scheme and they were also studying the Gujarat model where drinking water supply was good. He informed that both the models would be studied to supply drinking water to the people of Maharashtra.
Mission Bhagiratha Engineering in Chief Surender Reddy and others were present.
