Punjab government has sanctioned Rs 89.46 crore for laying drinking water network and revamping sewerage in Abohar, a subdivisional town of Fazilka district. Of this, Rs 21 crore have already been released.
The work will be over in two phases. In the first phase to be completed in another two years, the government will build a sewage treatment plant (STP) for Rs 26.14 crore and raise a main pipe from it to the 8.73-km Abulkhuerana drain for another Rs 15 crore. Replacing three sludge pumps will cost Rs 32 lakh.
In the second phase, it will revamp the entire sewerage system in Abohar for Rs 48 crore. Abohar is short of drinking water and the seepage of water from the gutters has made life a hell out there in the past many months.
The wastewater from the town flooded the fields near Abohar. Farmers diverted it back to save their crop, and the slush flooded many low-lying colonies in the town. The stink of the gutters was the dominating odour for months.
Local bodies minister Bhagat Chunni Lal now had also handed over a cheque for Rs 21 crore to the director of the local government to let the work begin on Tuesday (May 8), said Sunil Jakhar, Congress legislator from Abohar and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, who sat with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday night in Chandigarh to discuss the solutions. Shivraj Goyal, head of Abohar's civic boday, thanked the CM for the grant.
{{/usCountry}}Local bodies minister Bhagat Chunni Lal now had also handed over a cheque for Rs 21 crore to the director of the local government to let the work begin on Tuesday (May 8), said Sunil Jakhar, Congress legislator from Abohar and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, who sat with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday night in Chandigarh to discuss the solutions. Shivraj Goyal, head of Abohar's civic boday, thanked the CM for the grant.
{{/usCountry}}The extension of the drinking water and sewerage plans will cost the government Rs 40.14 crore and Rs 39.94 crore, respectively. The proposals were made in 2009, and last October, tenders were out for the sewerage scheme. The assignment went to a Hydrabad company, but the state government failed to issue it the required money.