Plans afoot to implement 24x7 water supply in Gurugram

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority are consulting private agencies in other cities to implement a 24x7 water supply project in the city. A team will visit other cities to understand different models of project implementation. The present water demand in Gurugram is 550 million litres per day, which is expected to increase to 750MLD in 2040 and 1,300MLD in 2055. The project is expected to be completed by May 2026.

Gurugram: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) are consulting private agencies in other cities to implement a 24x7 water supply project in the city.

Gurugram, India-July 20, 2023: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) Commissioner PC Meena held a meeting with officials about a pilot project to provide 24-hour water supply to at least six sectors in the city at sector-34, in Gurugram, India, on Thursday, 20 July 2023. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)(Pic to go with Leena Dhankar's story)

According to officials, they will form a team that will visit a number of cities that have implemented a 24x7 water supply project for a better understanding.

Officials said they are designing a project which will provide uninterrupted water supply to both Gurugram and Manesar.

MCG officials said the present water demand in Gurugram is 550 million litres per day (MLD), which will increase to 750MLD in the year 2040 and 1,300MLD in 2055. The MCG and GMDA are taking care of the distribution of the main source of water from the Gurugram Water Supply (GWS) channel and the NCR canal.

Officials said that a better model needs to be adopted for executing the project, though the issue is not with the source or availability of water.

GMDA is currently working on enhancing supply of its Chandu Budhera water treatment plant by 100MLD and it is expected to be completed by June 2024, said officials.

On June 3 this year, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced that a ₹1,517 crore water supply project has been prepared for Gurugram, keeping in mind the future population of Gurugram, Manesar and Bahadurgarh in the year 2050.

The project will start from Kakroi and will end at Basai with a 69-km-long totally covered water supply line. It is expected to be completed by May 2026, officials added.

MCG commissioner PC Meena said they invited representatives of the private agencies who have implemented 24x7 water supply projects in various cities to discuss their experience.

“After these discussions, we have also decided to send our officials to different cities to understand the various models of project implementation, mainly the hybrid annuity model and design build operate model for 24x7 water supply in Gurugram,” Meena said.

MCG officials said they have already engaged a private company for the designing and supervision of the smart project.

Meena said they had organised a pre-investor meeting on Thursday and had also invited large private sector players with work experience in water and urban infrastructure space. “We are studying the 24x7 models that are already running in other cities and have been successful. We want to incorporate the best practices and will also study the challenges of implementing such projects and how to successfully run such a project,” he said.

Meena said the private players gave presentations on various projects being undertaken by them.