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State govt starts feasibility survey for project to use thermal plant reservoir to store canal water
The survey work is being undertaken for the project under the Centre’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation scheme, says PWSSB official.
A year after the general house of the Bathinda municipal corporation passed a resolution to use a large water reservoir of the defunct Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) as additional storage for canal water for supplying to the city households, the state government has started a feasibility survey for execution of the proposal.
Official sources said the field study would also give a nod to work for more than 100 km of replacement and introduce a safe drinking water network in different pockets of the municipal limits.
Superintendent engineer of the Punjab water supply and sewerage board (PWSSB) Baljit Singh on Tuesday said that the survey work is being undertaken for the project under the Centre’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme.
“A private agency, Shah Technical Consultants, has been hired by the authorities and they started the work yesterday. A detailed report is expected in the first week of next month and development work will be planned on the survey report,” he said.
Meanwhile, official sources said that a disused water reservoir earlier used for power generation can be a major relief for Bathinda to enhance drinking water supply capacity.
The largest city of southwest Punjab, with 3.5 lakh population, depends on the Bathinda branch of Sirhind canal for its supply.
On July 7 last year, the MC had passed a resolution to use a lake in its jurisdiction to improve civic amenities.
The unused lake has a water-holding capacity of 552 million gallons a day (MGD) and the execution of the project will be beneficial to meet the city’s requirement for another 20-25 years.
As per the plan, the ambitious project would cost ₹37.30 crore, and the local body will need to acquire three acres as the MCB will buy the required piece of land from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) at the collectorate rate.
MCB officials said the city has about 55,000 registered water subscribers.
The Sirhind canal, the only source of drinking water supply for Bathinda, 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. “The proposed use of the lake is expected to hold water to meet the city population’s requirement for nearly 25 days. Other than regular biannual disruption of canal water supply, the city needs a long-term plan to handle other emergency situations when water from the canal is not available due to any other reasons for days. The proposed project will put an end to the chronic problem of rationing drinking water supply,” said an official of the local body.
Sources said that the Mall Road and the old settlements around the ASI-protected fort require replacement of water pipes and about 50 km is likely to be covered.
