Hopes for supply of safe drinking water have brightened for residents of large areas off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation invited a global tender for construction of a new water treatment plant at Jai Hind waterworks at Dhapa.
The waterworks currently has a treatment plant, which produces 30 million gallons of filtered water every day. But the civic authorities are looking for a second treatment plant within the waterworks for filtered supply to localities off Bypass, where residents still depend on groundwater.
According to a KMC water supply department official, besides taking care of water woes in large stretches off EM Bypass, the proposed plant, expected to come up with a capacity to produce 20 million gallons of filtered water every day, will also cater to several pockets of Jadavpur and Tollygunge. The cost of construction of the proposed plant could be around Rs 130 crore, said a civic official. The plant would take over two years to get operational, a source in the KMC water supply department said.
“Once the construction of the proposed water treatment plant gets over, we will be able to supply potable water to large areas of Topsia, Anandapur, Madurdaha, Kasba, Mukundapur and Patuli. Besides, we will also supply filtered water to areas of Jadavpur and Tollygunge, who are now dependent on groundwater or face water shortage,” said a KMC water supply department official. One of the reasons for augmentation of Jai Hind waterworks at Dhapa was to put a ban on use of groundwater, he said.
Source:Times of India
