Greater Noida will get Ganga water by October 2018

In 2016, the authority got a ₹300 crore loan for the project from NCRPB.

The city’s ambitious Ganga water project aimed at supplying drinking water to households is set to miss its March 2018 deadline. The Greater Noida authority has set a new deadline of October 26, 2018, for the completion of this project.

The Rs 300 crore project was started in 2010 and was scheduled to be completed in 2013. (Sunil Ghosh/HT photo)

The Rs 300 crore project was started in 2010 and was scheduled to be completed in 2013 but has missed several deadlines since then. In April 2016, the authority had set March 2018 as the deadline for this project, but work got delayed.

At present, residents depend on hard groundwater for drinking, which is often saline.

“We aim to finish the 11-km pipeline laying work by June 14, 2018. We have completed 26% work on the pipeline needed to bring Ganga water from the Masuri-Dehra Ganga Canal to the water treatment plant here that is under construction in Palla village of Greater Noida. Work on the water treatment plant is 21% complete and it will be ready by October 26, 2018,” Greater Noida authority general manager Rajiv Tyagi said.

The Ganga water project, under which the authority plans to bring 85 cusecs (204 MLD) drinking water was initially delayed due to land disputes between farmers and the state government. Later, the authority took time to get a loan from the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), a central government agency, meant to help and infrastructure and housing projects in and around Delhi.

In 2016, the authority got a ₹300 crore loan for the project from NCRPB.

The Ganga water will be cleaned at the treatment plant in Palla village before the same is supplied to residents.

The authority plans to supply 100% Ganga water without extracting any groundwater for mixing. The authority plans to supply this water to residents of Greater Noida in phases; in Phase 1 over 3 lakh residents will get this water. In future, the authority has decided to supply Ganga water to 12 lakh residents, which is the estimated population of Greater Noida as per Master Plan 2021.

Residents, who are living in high-rise apartment complexes or plotted houses said the groundwater that they depend on is salty and not fit for drinking.

“The drinking water, which is being supplied in our tower is too salty and does not taste sweet. Even after purification with the help of RO, the quality of the drinking water is not good. The authority should have provided Ganga water before the residents moved into the housing complexes,” said Deepti Sharma, a resident of Gaur City.