Delhi Jal Board to revive decade-old Wazirabad upgrade plan

The Delhi Jal Board revives a 10-year plan to decentralize Wazirabad water treatment, aiming for upgrades and new infrastructure to enhance water supply.

New Delhi

Water minister Parvesh Verma inspects the Wazirabad water treatment plant in April 2025. (HT Archive)

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has decided to revive its 10-year-old plan to decentralise a 120mgd (million gallons a day) plant into two plants of 80mgd and 40mgd at the Wazirabad water treatment plant, and undertake key upgrade and maintenance works, senior government officials said. A tender has also been floated for the same.

The work will involve the construction of new clear water reservoirs and pumping stations, upgrade of underground service reservoirs (UGRs), booster stations, primary and secondary distribution mains, tertiary pipelines, customer connections and bulk and consumption meters.

An official, who did not wish to be named, said, “A central SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system will be installed to monitor the entire catchment areas and water distribution. Consultant will assist the DJB in all aspects of the implementation of projects of the program for the six years.”

Wazirabad WTP, one of Delhi’s largest water treatment plants, supplies 120 million gallons of water every day to residents of assemblies in Burari, Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, Model Town, Punjabi Bagh, Shakur Basti, Jahangirpuri, Peera Garhi, Avantika, Pitampura, and surrounding localities.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its report on “functioning of Delhi Jal Board” tabled last month in the Delhi Assembly, flagged the lack of progress for the project as a major failure of the DJB, despite securing financial assistance for the ₹2,243 crore project, which was expected to benefit millions of residents.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) withdrew its funding in 2019, citing irregularities and administrative problems. “Thus, failure of DJB in fulfilling the project readiness requirement, caused by rejection of approved bids and a flip flop by the DJB deprived it of finance for a significant potable water from ADB,” the CAG report stated.

A DJB official said the project cost has been revised to a tentative investment plan of $286 million or around ₹2,574 crore. “The Delhi government is expecting to get around $200 million from ADB to help finance the investment programme, which will in turn support a slice of the GNCTD Water Supply Master Plan’s medium-term investment requirement,” the official said.

The DJB approved the project in March 2014 under the Delhi Water Supply Improvement Investment Programme, at a tentative cost of ₹2,243 crore. The project was to be funded by the ADB with an estimated completion period of 72 months.

Last year, water minister Parvesh Verma announced that the new government was reviving the project with a renewed agreement with ADB, after meeting the country director of ADB. “Following detailed discussions, an in-principle agreement has been reached to revive and restructure the project for contemporary needs. ADB expressed its willingness to extend technical expertise, international best practices, and structured financial support once again to ensure the success of the initiative,” the minister had said.