Deadline for additional water supply postpones by fortnight

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

For the past year, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) and Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP) have been promising an additional 26 MLD of water for the city. However, due to the incomplete work at the Pharola Water Treatment Plant, the citizens continue to be deprived of this extra supply. Although authorities had announced that the additional water would start flowing from August 1, no actual progress was seen until Friday. On Saturday, the old and new water purification plants at Pharola will finally be connected.

A new 26 MLD-capacity treatment plant has been constructed at Pharola. It was expected to be completed before the previous summer, but the contractor failed to finish the work on time. Even after summer ended, the work continued. Now, despite two months into the monsoon, minor tasks are still pending.

Municipal administrator G Sreekanth had instructed a trial run of the new plant starting July 22, and set a deadline of August 1 for the contractor to complete all work. But the deadline has once again been missed. A 75 HP pump is to be installed at the plant, capable of drawing water in just two hours. However, a key question arises, after pumping, will the plant have to wait again for water to refill? This points to poor planning and repeated failures on the part of the MJP.

To resolve the issue, a 900 mm diameter pipeline connection between the old and new purification plants is planned. Once connected, both plants will have sufficient water, and the pumps will be able to run continuously. The planned work, including pipeline connection, panel box installation, and power supply set up by MSEDCL, will be carried out on Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm.