E-Paper
Mohali to get 20 MGD additional water supply from December 1
This will help Mohali bridge its demand-supply gap, which goes up to 12 MGD during peak summer months; Mohali will be sharing around 5 MGD of the additional supply with Kharar and 1 MGD with Morinda.
After a decade-long wait, Mohali is finally set to get an additional water supply of 20 MGD (million gallons a day) from Phase 5 and 6 of Kajauli waterworks, starting December 1.
This will help the district bridge its demand-supply gap, which goes up to 12 MGD during peak summer months. Currently, against a demand of 32 MGD, Mohali gets 10 MGD from the older phases of Kajauli waterworks and 10 MGD from 75 tubewells, leaving a shortfall of 12 MGD.
Mohali will be sharing around 5 MGD of the additional supply with Kharar and 1 MGD with Morinda.
Chandigarh has already started getting its share
Kajauli waterworks is located on the Bhakra mainline canal near Morinda in Rupnagar district, from where the water requirements of Chandigarh, Mohali and Chandimandir are met. Chandigarh has already started receiving an additional supply of 35 MGD from Phase 5 and 6. The additional supply for Mohali got delayed due to pending work at the water treatment plant coming up at Singhpura.
The project has missed two deadlines: December 2020 and July 2021. Now, 400 workers are on job to meet the new deadline.
What led to the delay for Mohali
In May 2012, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had started laying pipelines to supply additional water from Kajauli waterworks to Mohali and Chandigarh at a cost of ₹200 crore, half of which was borne by Chandigarh.
However, the delay in Singhpura plant, being built by a Gujarat-based company for ₹100 crore, put a spanner in the project. One of the reasons was indecision: whether to go for 5 MGD capacity or 20 MGD. GMADA finally went with the second option. The pandemic, too, played a part by creating labour shortage.
GMADA chief engineer Davinder Singh said, “We will begin the trial on November 30 and start supplying additional water in the next two or three days. The construction work of the water treatment plant is in its final stages.”
Mohali deputy mayor Kuljeet Singh Bedi, who had moved the high court over water shortage in Mohali, said, “We are finally getting additional water supply, but the previous dispensation, led by Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party, did not take any initiative to expedite the work. It was the Congress government, which made efforts on this front.”
