Over and above the World Health Organisation’s stipulated quota of 55 litres of pure water per head per day, the Telangana government is all set to supply 100 litres of pure water per head per day through its prestigious Telangana Drinking Water Supply Project (Water Grid).
According to official sources, WHO’s latest norms put the minimum quantity of water to be supplied per head per day is 70 litres, out of which only 55 litres is purified water for drinking purpose and the remaining 15 litres not purified water for other uses.
But, the Telangana government plans to supply 100 litres of pure water per head per day in villages, 130 litres in municipalities and 150 litres in municipal corporations under the Water Grid scheme.
The government will provide drinking water tap connection to every household in Telangana. “We can draw water even from the dead storage from the rivers for two years,” an official said, adding that the drought for two years would not have any effect on the Water Grid and supply of potable water to the people.
The government will tap 39.272 tmcft of water from Krishna and Godavari rivers, and their tributaries for Water Grid. It has invited tenders for works worth Rs 17,087 crore for intake wells, and the works are in progress.
In the second phase, the government invited tenders for works worth Rs 10,203 crore. The technical bids will opened on Thursday.
The third phase tenders process commenced three days ago and the tenders will be opened after 12 days.
The bids to opened on Thursday are for civil works, overhead tanks, pump sheds, treatment plants, pipelines, staff quarters, reservoirs, sumps, ground-level service reservoirs, pump-rooms and other works. Official sources said that they were not inviting tenders for fixing of motors and electrification works now. The Water Grid requires 1,000 HP and 2,000 HP motors.
As part of the Water Grid, the government proposes to lay pipelines of 36,000 km main lines and another 45,000 km for individual lines. The Water Grid will cover 235.52 lakh rural and 65.73 lakh urban population. “Of the total project cost of Rs 38,500 crore, about 60 pc goes for laying pipelines,” the sources said and claimed that there was no dearth of funds.
Flow of Funds
- State govt sanctioned Rs 6,000 cr
- HUDCO sanctioned
- Rs 2,500 cr and released Rs 1,000 cr
- NABARD sanctioned Rs 4,000 cr
- Proposals with DPRs submitted to Allahabad Bank for Rs 13,000 cr
- Proposals along with DPR submitted to IndusInd Bank for Rs 1,000 cr
- Bank of Baroda in principle agreed to fund Rs 2,000 cr
Source: The New Indian Express