Sunkishala designed to cater to drinking water needs of city until 2071: KTR

HYDERABAD: Municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday said the intake well at Sunkishala was designed to cater to the drinking water needs of Hyderabad until 2071. "It would ensure that no drinking water shortage would arise in Hyderabad even if there is a drought for five successive years," he added.

While laying the foundation stone for the intake well and pumping house of the project, Rama Rao said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had designed drinking water supply schemes to meet the domestic and industrial requirements of Hyderabad for 100 years. Hyderabad would emerge as the second biggest city after New Delhi in 15 years, he said.

The minister said that other metros were struggling with drinking water shortage, power cuts, pollution and skyrocketing prices of properties. "The Chief Minister has succeeded in solving the decades-old issues in a short span of seven-and-half-years. The Chief Minister is dreaming of developing Hyderabad as a global city."

Rama Rao said that that drinking water schemes for Hyderabad and surroundings were designed to draw water from the Krishna and the Godavari rivers. Together with water from the Kaleshwaram project, he said that Hyderabad had 65 tmcft of river water for utilisation.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board had completed 48 km of the ring main works out of 158-km project along the ORR. The systems were designed to back each other if one of them failed due for any reason.

He said the Water Board was geared up for Krishna Phases IV and IV to cater to the drinking water needs of areas in and around the ORR.  "The Chief Minister has also planned a 159-km long main ring with three-metre diameter pipelines to provide irrigation to the areas and water to industries that will come up along the regional ring road (RRR)," he added.

Currently, water for Hyderabad is drawn from the Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (AMRP) irrigation canal, which uses water from the Krishna river via the Nagarjunasagar project. When the water level at Nagarjunasagar drops below the minimum draw down level (MDDL) of 510 feet in summer, the canal system is unable to deliver water to the city. This forces the Water Board to install emergency pumping systems at the foreshore of Nagarjunasagar to draw water below the MDDL.

Sunkishala has been identified as the point where water can be drawn below MDDL, up to 462 feet, and permanent infrastructure is being installed for the purpose there. A total of Rs 1,450 crore has been allotted for the project.

Of this, Rs 952 crore will be utilised for the construction of the intake pumping station and transmission mains from Sunkishala to Kodandapur water treatment plant. Another Rs 215.15 crore was set aside to provide electromechanical equipment, sub-station and instrumentation works at the intake station. Other components include an underground shaft, intake tunnel, etc.