NDMC to prepare 25 year water masterplan for Lutyens’ Delhi

The process of making a new masterplan for NDMC will focus on making the area water sustainable, prevent leakages, upgrade supply lines and adding smart metre network.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is planning to undertake a comprehensive study of the water supply network in Lutyens’ Delhi for development of a 25-year water masterplan in the area, officials said. The civic body has issued tenders to hire a consultant for the project on June 20 and officials said the hiring process is likely to be completed by July 15.

Kuljeet Chahal, NDMC vice chairman said the new masterplan will focus on upgrading the water supply system of the area and expanding the 24x7 water supply model. (HT Photos)

Kuljeet Chahal, NDMC vice chairman said the new masterplan will focus on upgrading the water supply system of the area and expanding the 24x7 water supply model. “We have already started the process for implementing the pilot project for 24x7 water supply in areas near Vinay Marg and Moti Bagh. The project will be expanded in other areas as well. The process of making a new masterplan for NDMC will focus on making the area water sustainable, prevent leakages, upgrade supply lines and adding smart metre network,” Chahal added.

A senior NDMC official said the area faces unique water supply challenges as it hosts several important national institutions, offices and hotels while the core water supply network was laid down before independence. As per an NDMC report, the 42.7 sqkm area has a resident population of 0.25 million and much larger floating population of around 1.6-2.0 million per day.

“The study will focus on all aspects of the water supply network in the area from replacing old supply lines, upgrading underground water reservoirs, supply to slum clusters as well as steps needed to make New Delhi more water secure through additional storages and back up plans,” the official added.

While rest of the city gets water from Delhi Jal Board, NDMC is the water utility for the Lutyens’ Delhi area. However, the civic body sources the raw water supply from DJB. An NDMC official said the present demand of water for NDMC area is about 148 MLD (million litres per day) and the average water availability through DJB is about 125 MLD. With Delhi being a water deficient city with demand-supply gap of 250 MGD (million gallons per day), the impact on supply during peak summers is also felt in the region, officials added. It gets raw water from DJB through 18 different inlet points and four water treatment plants.

According to an NDMC report, 100% households in the area are covered through water supply network and the remaining slum clusters are being covered under the “Har Ghar Jal” scheme. NDMC oversees 450km of water supply network through 50mm–900mm diameter pipes. The civic body supplies water to around 15,970 residential and 3,157 commercial consumers. “Most of the connections in the New Delhi area were metred with mechanical metrs. We have started the process of converting all the mechanical metres to smart metres which will be connected to the central SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition),” an official added.

NDMC earlier this month cleared a proposal to spend around ₹31 crore on converting all existing metres to smart metres including replacement of 5,397 defective mechanical water metres. “These will have advanced metering capacities, are highly waterproof, magnetically sealed, have no moving parts and are capable of measuring both low and high water flow,” the official added. The council currently manages around 24 underground reservoirs with 10-12 ft depth at places like North Avenue, Mandir Marg, Shivaji stadium, Moti Bagh, Jor Bagh, Vinay Marg among others.