Ganga water project for Khoda stalls as Noida refuses supply share

The project has stalled after the Noida authority declined to part with water from its existing allocation, local officials said

A ₹183-crore drinking water project for Ghaziabad’s Khoda colony has hit a roadblock, with the Noida authority denying consent to share its portion of Ganga water, officials of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam said on Monday.

Khoda has no piped water; locals rely on tankers, bottles, pumps, and other ad hoc arrangements, they claimed. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Located along National Highway 9, Khoda borders Indirapuram on one side and Delhi’s Ghazipur area on the other. It falls under the Sahibabad Assembly constituency and is home to nearly 44,000 households, according to a 2018 survey. Despite its proximity to urban hubs, Khoda continues to lack a formal piped water supply system.

The proposed project, cleared under the AMRUT 2.0 scheme in December 2023, aimed to bring 50 million litres per day (MLD) of treated Ganga water to Khoda from Pratap Vihar’s water treatment plants, which currently supply areas across Ghaziabad and Noida. The announcement was made by a UP Vidhan Sabha committee led by Sahibabad MLA Sunil Sharma.

But the project has stalled after the Noida authority declined to part with water from its existing allocation.

“Since Noida has refused to share its Ganga water quota, the project is effectively off the table,” said Bhramanand, executive engineer with the UP Jal Nigam. He confirmed the development in a response dated July 17 on the chief minister’s IGRS portal, following a complaint by Khoda resident Deepak Joshi.

RP Singh, general manager of the Noida authority’s waterworks division, said Noida was under no obligation—past or present—to supply water to Khoda.

“There has never been an agreement, not in 2004 when we first got Ganga water via Ghaziabad canal, and not since. Our current allocation of 330 MLD is solely for Noida’s needs,” Singh said.

Officials from the Jal Nigam, however, stopped short of declaring the project scrapped.

“The project is suspended for now,” said Rajesh Kumar Pankaj, chief engineer, UP Jal Nigam. “We had identified surplus water that could have been diverted to Khoda. We are exploring alternatives and have more meetings planned. If this route fails, we’ll find other means to serve the area.”

Residents, meanwhile, say they are once again left high and dry. Joshi, convener of the Khoda Residents’ Association, said that water supply remains one of the biggest daily struggles in the area.

“We rely on private tankers, bottled water, and submersibles. Last year we held a 13-day hunger strike. In June, we set out on a cycle march to meet the Chief Minister in Lucknow. We were stopped at Amroha, where officials promised the project would be expedited. Now, through an RTI reply, we find out it’s been shelved,” Joshi said.

According to Khoda Nagar Palika officials, the locality’s daily demand is around 38MLD, but only 10MLD is currently supplied—mostly through tankers and ad hoc arrangements. Only about 500–600 households near NH-9 have piped water connections, executive officer Abhishek Kumar said.