Hyderabad: Contrary to expectations the Krishna Phase-III drinking water project will not quench the thirst of Hitec city, Malkajgiri, Qutubullapur, Kapra and Uppal areas in the near future.
The Rs 1,670-crore project expected to be completed and commissioned by June 2014 will get the much-needed 90 million gallons extra water daily to the city, but it will not be supplied immediately to the localities waiting for it due to the lack of a distribution network.
It may take at least two more years for the internal water distribution network to be put in place. And, even this would be possible only if the Water Board gets the finances in time.
Residents in and around Hitec city may be in the IT corridor but when it comes to quenching thirst, they would have to wait longer than the residents of Rajendranagar where works on laying internal water distribution lines are in progress.
Though the presence of IT companies has sparked off development in Hitec City, drinking water continues to be a big challenge. At Madhapur and its surrounding areas, residents get water supply only once in three days, and the gap increases to five days a week in summer.
The situation is even worse in Malkajgiri municipal circle. Only 15 per cent of the households in Malkajgiri have drinking water connections. Eighty five per cent of the population depend on bore wells, public stand posts (public taps), pay and use mobile tanker water and also 20 litre cans besides water from neighbours having piped supply.
The scenario is not different in Qutbullapur, Alwal, Kapra, Ramachandrapuram, Patancheru, Serilingampally and LB Nagar where a large number of areas get water supply only once in three days and once a week in summer.
When contacted, Water Board engineer-in-chief M. Satyanarayana confirmed that though Krishna Phase-III will help the Board to improve water supply in the city substantially, new colonies that have come up in surrounding municipalities without access to distribution lines will have to wait until pipelines are laid.
Works on laying water supply lines are in progress in Rajendernagar at a cost of Rs 314 crore. The water improvement project funded by World Bank is being executed in Malkajgiri at a cost of Rs 338.54 crore.
“We want to lay pipelines in Uppal, Qutbullapur and Alwal first and subsequently in Serilingampally covering Hitec City and other municipalities. We require Rs 3,195 crore to lay the distribution network in all surrounding municipalities. We will be submitting proposals for funding under JNNURM-II,” added Satyanarayana.
Next: Water board gets nod to lay godavari pipeline in forests
Water board gets nod to lay godavari pipeline in forests
Hyderabad: Five years after works started on Phase-I of the Godavari drinking wa-ter project, the Water Board has finally got the crucial stage-II and final clearance from the Union environment ministry for taking over 50 acres of forest land to execute the project.
The stage-II approval has been given in accordance with Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The Union ministry has approved the diversion of 19.91 hectares or nearly 50 acres of forest land falling in the three districts of Ranga Reddy, Medak and Karimnagar. The same has been communicated to the state government which is expected to issue a GO shortly for taking over the forest land by the Water Board.
It may be mentioned that an in principle approval (stage-I) was given in June when officials from the Bengaluru regional office of the ministry visited the city and inspected the project site as well as 50 acres of alternate land in Murmur of Karimnagar district, that is being given by the Board in lieu of forest land. As per rules, forest land has to be compensated with an equivalent area of land.
Works on the Rs 3,375 crore phase-I of Maulana Abul Kalam Hyderabad Srujala Sravanthi Scheme, as the Godavari drinking water project for Greater Hyderabad is officially named, are going on at a brisk pace on all the stretches.
