Poor maintenance leaves Amritsar Heritage Street water ATMs non-functional

The water ATMs installed by the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) on Heritage Street — one of the city’s busiest tourist corridors — in 2020 have been lying defunct for a long time. The units were installed to provide easy access to safe drinking water for thousands of tourists and devotees visiting the area.

Multiple water dispensing units along Heritage Street leading to the Golden Temple are broken and remain out of order. During the peak summer season, these defunct facilities are of little use to thirsty pilgrims and passersby. At present, many of the machines are being used as makeshift bins by visitors, while garbage is strewn around them as the surrounding area has not been cleaned regularly by civic body workers.

The MC had installed 10 water ATMs near the Golden Temple in 2020 at a cost of Rs 1.35 crore to provide potable water to devotees. In addition, 10 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle crushing machines were installed on Heritage Street under the civic body’s Smart City Project at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh.

The water ATMs were considered particularly important as Heritage Street attracts thousands of visitors every day, many of whom require free or affordable drinking water while walking to the Golden Temple. However, the repeated breakdown of these units and the need for frequent repairs have undermined their original purpose.

“We have seen these machines broken for a long time. They are hardly ever functional. We visit the Golden Temple twice every month, and most people either have to buy bottled water from nearby shops or carry their own,” said Sukhpreet Singh Baini, a devotee from Gurdaspur.

A group of women devotees from Beas also struggled to find drinking water and eventually had to purchase bottled water from nearby stores as the machines remained non-functional.

“It has become an everyday issue. These machines have not been working for a long time and even when they are repaired, they soon become defunct again. We have repeatedly urged the MC authorities to remove them and free up space for pedestrians, as these ATMs occupy a portion of the sidewalks,” said Anil Sharma, a shopkeeper in the area.