Nod to Rs 643-cr projects for Shimla

SHIMLA: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has given its nod for Rs 643.06 crore projects. In the projects, Rs 335.77crore is for the Kol Dam lift drinking water scheme, Rs 136.93 crore for improving and plugging leakages in the city water supply and Rs 170.36 crore is for rejuvenating sewerage lines and plants covering the entire population.

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 29

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has given its nod for Rs 643.06 crore projects. In the projects, Rs 335.77crore is for the Kol Dam lift drinking water scheme, Rs 136.93 crore for improving and plugging leakages in the city water supply and Rs 170.36 crore is for rejuvenating sewerage lines and plants covering the entire population.

The state would provide Rs 129 crore as counterpart share while the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department and Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) are expected to execute the projects on engineering procurement construction (EPC) mode.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the projects were approved by the Union Finance Ministry during a meeting held in New Delhi today, which was attended by Additional Chief Secretary, IPH, P C Dhiman, along with other senior officers of the state.

Virbhadra Singh said additional water supply from Kol Dam would address the basic requirements of the capital city which is developing rapidly. The World Bank would give Rs 514 crore while the state will contribute Rs 129 crore as counterpart funding over a project period of three years, he added.

The projects would improve the sanitary conditions in the city as they aim at providing sewerage facility to all households, constructing new sewerage treatment plants, and rejuvenating sewerage lines and plants, Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development Minister, claimed.

Meanwhile, the SMC House, chaired by Mayor Sanjay Chauhan, today thanked the state and Central Government. He said the SMC had submitted the DPRs prepared by the IPH Department to the Ministry to lift water from Kol Dam.

“The water and sewerage rejuvenation project of Rs 136.93 crore aims at covering the left out 35 per cent city areas, plugging the leakages and missing links in the old and new sewerage system to make the city clean and stench-free,” Chauhan claimed.

Earlier, the IPH Department had failed to utilise the Rs 53.2 crore funds meant for the improvement of sewerage lines under Jawahar Lal Urban renewal mission in 2010 which was lapsed by the Ministry of Urban Development.

The residents are pushed to the corner as the SMC faces shortage of water in summers due to the inflow of tourists. The city needs over 47 MLD of water daily but it is not getting more than 40 MLD.

On the other hand, the present sewerage system has a capacity of 35.63 MLD in six treatment plants. But the proposed plans aim at creating 40.63 MLD capacity that would cater to the needs of the city population up to 2032 and can be upgraded to 49.96 MLD capacity that would take care of the city till 2047, said the IPH engineers.

Chauhan said as soon as the MC gets funds, it would start the work of plugging each leakage and covering the entire population under the sewerage network. The IPH Department and the SMC will execute the projects on EPC mode, he added.