E-Paper
PMC water department seeks ₹200 cr more through municipal bonds for 24x7 water plan
PUNE: After raising Rs200 crore through municipal bonds for the execution of 24x7 water scheme, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) water department has requested the accounts department to generate another Rs200 crore through municipal bonds for the project
PUNE: After raising Rs200 crore through municipal bonds for the execution of 24x7 water scheme, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) water department has requested the accounts department to generate another Rs200 crore through municipal bonds for the project.
Water department head Aniruddha Pawaskar said, “We have asked the account department to raise Rs200 crore through municipal bonds for the year 2021-22.”
PMC accounts department head Ulka Kalaskar said, “We have asked for details from the water department for issuance of municipal bonds.”
Recently, Pune Member of Parliament Girish Bapat had instructed municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar to raise more funds through municipal bonds to speed up the water scheme. Bapat and other elected members have pointed out that the work is going on at snail’s pace.
Pawaskar said, “The project comprises of many sub-projects, yet the overall completion of work is 25 per cent. While work was slow during the initial stages, we have instructed contractors to strictly follow the deadline and are regularly monitoring the progress.”
The government issues debt securities in the form of municipal bonds. With the bonds, civic bodies raise money from the market for a fixed period and guarantees to return the principal plus interest.
What is 24x7 water project
PMC decided to execute the 24x7 water project for equal distribution of water across the city. The scheme remained quite controversial due to inflated tenders.
The main objectives of the project are as follows:
Safe and equitable water supply to all citizens for the next 30 years
Distribution of water 24 hours every day
Reduce the amounts of water losses and non-revenue water
Ensuring technological, economical & environmental sustainability of the water supply service
The above objectives are to be achieved by adopting the following approach:
Introducing universal smart-metering of water consumption and application of water charges based on the effective water consumption by the consumer
Conducting water audits by setting bulk flow meters in all stages of the water supply system
Introducing a SCADA system for timely and effective control of system operations, water quality monitoring and achieving high service level benchmarks
Undertaking systematic leakage detection and repair activity to bring down the level of non-revenue Water in the distribution system to the desired level of 15%
Use of GIS-based technologies to integrate geo-spatial and real time data
Deploying innovative and IEC (Information, Education and Communication) strategies in print and digital media to proactively engage with all citizens
Existing and proposed water system in Pune
Particulars/Existing/ Proposed
Raw water from Khadakwasla and Pavana reservoir/Khadakwasla, Bhama Askhed and Mulshi Dam
Water treatment plant capacity/ 2314 MLD/300 MLD
Water supply zones/67/141
Service reservoirs/58/103
Distribution network/ 2325 km/ 1618 km
Transmission network/93.54 km/139.23 km
Automatic meter reading/zero/3.15 lakh
