Rejuvenation of Buddha Nullah: Ludhiana MC struggles to find land for pumping station

To review the ongoing works, Ludhiana municipal commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal convened a meeting of the monitoring committee constituted under the project at the sewer treatment plant

Working on the project to clean Buddha Nullah, Ludhiana MC is struggling to find a chunk of land for building a pumping station near Gaughat Gurdwara cremation ground.

As per the information, officials of the Ludhiana MC’s building branch have been directed to find a vacant space near the cremation ground for establishing the pumping station. (HT file photo)

To review the ongoing works, municipal commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal convened a meeting of the monitoring committee constituted under the project at the sewer treatment plant (STP) site in Jamalpur on Friday.

As per the information, officials of the building branch have been directed to find a vacant space near the cremation ground for establishing the pumping station.

The officials stated that a pumping station is already functional near the cremation ground, but a bigger one has to be established from where the sewage from different old city areas could be pumped till Jamalpur station using interceptor lines. The outlet points from where the sewage is directly being dumped into the nullah have to be closed, they added.

While inspecting the ongoing works to set up 225MLD STP in Jamalpur, deliberations were also made to get the power connection approved from the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) for the plant. Also, the contractor company has asked the MC to make the final decision on whether the department wants to upgrade the existing STP in the Balloke area or not. The decision regarding the same is pending for a long time.

Sabharwal said regular meetings were being held to monitor the ongoing works and the project was going on at a satisfactory speed.

“There are a few issues but we are working out a solution. The ₹650-crore project to clean the nullah was allotted to the contractor for ₹519 crore and over ₹100 crore has been spent on different works being taken up under the project,” he added.