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Bathinda to use thermal plant reservoir to augment drinking water supply
As per the plan, the project would cost ₹37.3 crore and the local body will need to acquire three acres. Sources said the MC will buy the required piece of land from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) at the collectorate rate.
The General House of the Bathinda municipal corporation (MC) on Friday consented to using a large water reservoir of the defunct Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) as additional storage for canal water for supplying to households.
The largest city of southwest Punjab, with 3.5 lakh population, depends on the Bathinda branch of Sirhind canal for its supply.
As per the plan, the project would cost ₹37.3 crore and the local body will need to acquire three acres. Sources said the MC will buy the required piece of land from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) at the collectorate rate.
The project was part of the 40-point agenda at the Bathinda MC’s General House meeting and was passed unanimously.
As per the assessment report of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board (PWSSB), a local government department undertaking, the unused lake has a water-holding capacity of 552 million gallons a day (MGD) and execution of the project will be beneficial for the city in the long run.
MC officials said the city has about 55,000 registered water subscribers.
The Sirhind canal is closed for maintenance for 20 days each, before the sowing of kharif and rabi crops, and water supply time in the city’s limits are cut to two-and-half-hour a day. This reduced water supply leads to hardships for residents.
“As per the detailed assessment, the proposed use of the lake is expected to hold water to meet the city population’s requirement for nearly 25 days. Other than the regular biannual disruption of canal water supply, the city needs a long-term plan to handle other emergency situations when canal water is not available due to other reasons. The proposed project will put an end to the chronic problem of rationing drinking water supply,” said an MC functionary.
Official sources said in June 2020, the Bathinda MC had first mooted a similar proposal to use three man-made water bodies, spread over 177 acres, previously part of the power generation process, to enhance the water-storage capacity. But the project was stuck in the red tape and did not see any progress.
