No taps, 70 water tankers will supply Ganga water to Khoda ahead of civic polls

In the absence of regular supply, residents currently rely on submersible pumps for their drinking water needs or purchase bottled water from local suppliers

Ahead of the upcoming local body elections, residents of Khoda Colony in Ghaziabad will be supplied Ganga water supply in 70 newly acquired water tankers, officials of the Khoda nagar palika said, adding that the locality comprising about 45,000 households has no tap water supply unlike the urban areas of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

The tankers were flagged off from Khoda on Tuesday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

In the absence of regular supply, residents currently rely on submersible pumps for their drinking water needs or purchase bottled water from local suppliers.

The new water tankers will fetch Ganga water from the Ganga water treatment plant in Pratap Vihar which is about 17km away and the fleet will arrive in the morning and evening in Khoda.

The project is estimated to cost about ₹3 crore and the funds have been drawn from the 15th Finance Commission. Although water supply projects have been sanctioned for the thickly populated locality, scarcity of land has kept them on paper, said officials.

With over 45,000 households, Khoda has a daily drinking water requirement of about 10 cusecs. The 70 tankers may not suffice but will provide a safe and alternative source of water to residents, one that is free of cost,” said Shalini Gupta, executive officer, Khoda nagar palika.

The Ganga water treatment plant in Pratap Vihar houses two water supply plants that provide Ganga water to Ghaziabad and Noida and will now also supplying about 1.5MLD (million litres daily) to Khoda as well.

“The 100 cusec water plant has processing loss of about 2%. So, to supply to Khoda, we will minimise the loss and reprocess this water. The supply to Khoda will not have any impact on the supply to Ghaziabad and Noida. The World Health Organization standard is about 135 litres of water per capita per day. This supply to Khoda may not meet that standard but it is a stopgap arrangement. We will ensure that the colony gets a more permanent form of daily supply soon,” said Unmesh Shukla, executive engineer, Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam.

General (retired) VK Singh, Union minister of state and Ghaziabad MP, flagged off the 70 tankers in Khoda on Tuesday. He said efforts are on to ascertain the infrastructure requirement for Ganga water supply to Khoda.

“There is lot of concern about the lack of water supply to Khoda.The supply through tankers is a stopgap arrangement till a more permanent solution is found. The tankers are made of stainless steel and 35 of them are of 5,000 litre capacity while the rest are of 3,000 litre capacity. We expect that each of the wards will get two tankers each in the morning and evening. The arrival of tankers will be timed in such a manner that they are able to move freely within the colony without hindering traffic,” general Singh said.