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24x7 water scheme: Struggling to acquire land for 11 tanks, PMC finally finds alternative
The PMC has decided to shift four tanks to other locations, upgrade the storage of the neighbouring four tanks, and initiate the process of rebidding for the remaining three tanks
Faced with problems in acquiring land for the construction of 11 out of the 82 overhead water tanks, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has finally come up with a solution to ensure smooth and equitable supply under its ambitious 24x7 water scheme. The PMC has decided to shift four tanks to other locations, upgrade the storage of the neighbouring four tanks, and initiate the process of rebidding for the remaining three tanks, officials involved in the project said.
Under the 24x7 water scheme, the PMC needs to build a total of 82 water tanks at various locations in the city. Although the 24x7 water scheme work is in progress and construction of close to 50 overhead water tanks is complete, the civic body has been struggling to get land for the construction of 11 tanks.
According to Nandkishor Jagtap, in-charge of the 24x7 water scheme, different issues had cropped up in the construction of the remaining 11 tanks. “We were struggling for land for the 11 tanks. Each tank had a different issue. Instead of waiting any longer, we have now come up with various solutions. We were not getting land at Agricultural college, Chikhalwadi and Dhanori. So, we dropped plans for the same and have now decided to increase the storage of the neighbouring tanks, which will provide water to the rest of the areas. We are increasing storage at Chhaturshringi hill. There was an issue with land at Kalyaninagar and Sanjay Park so we sorted it out,” Jagtap said.
According to the PMC water department, the contractor has been asked to shift the locations of the four tanks, and update the storage of the neighbouring four tanks. “At the same time, we have decided to go for retendering for the three tanks. As the estimate for the tanks was old and in the last few years, material costs have increased, the contractors were not ready to do the work at the old rates. Considering this, we have re-floated bids for some water tanks,” Jagtap said.
The PMC was also facing problems in laying water pipelines and erecting water tanks on forest land. Last week however, the civic body got approval from the forest department for carrying out work on forest land, another official said. The PMC requires at least 20,000 square feet of land to build each overhead tank, and the construction period would be around eight months. The PMC has already completed construction of 43 tanks while the remaining tanks are under construction. Now that the issues with these 11 tanks have been sorted out, work on these tanks will begin soon. Apart from building 82 water tanks, the PMC needs to lay a total 1,600 km of water pipelines of which over 50% work has been completed.
