Amritsar: WB team reviews water supply project

A team from the World Bank, headquartered in Washington, D.C. visited the city to assess the progress of the Amritsar Bulk Water Supply Scheme (ABWSS), initiated by the Punjab Government, to ensure a continuous supply of clean water to the residents.

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The project, being implemented with the collaboration of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, the World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) under the Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project, aims to provide treated water from the Upper Bari Doab Canal to houses in future.

As part of this, a water treatment plant with a capacity of 44 crore litrs per day is being built near Vallah, along with the construction of 45 new water tanks across the city and the laying of a 112-km-long pipeline. Out of this, 85 km of the pipeline has already been laid.

The World Bank team, including Natasa Vetma, Rosana Nitti, Dr BKD Raja, Charu Jain, Anindo and Navika Chaudhary, visited various sites, such as the water tank construction sites at 100-Foot Road, Kanwar Avenue Park, Chamrang Road Park, and Government Polytechnic College in Vikas Nagar. The pipeline is being laid near the Ramtirath road highway, and the Water Treatment Plant being constructed at Vallah.

After visiting the site, a review meeting of the project was held with MC Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh.

During the meeting, the MC Commissioner explained that the pace of work had slowed down due to the departure of migrant workers to their hometowns during Operation Sindoor. He said measures had been taken to protect the workers from the heat and heatstroke, such as prohibiting work between 12 pm and 3 pm, providing air coolers in the workers’ cabins, and ensuring cold drinking water and ORS solutions for the workers.

The World Bank team appreciated the steps taken to ensure the safety of workers and local residents as well as the efforts to reduce environmental impacts in the areas surrounding the construction sites.

During this, Harstinder Singh Dhillon, GM (Project), PMIDC, Kuldeep Singh Saini, Project Manager, Jitinder Vasudeva XEN, Narinderpal Singh, Ashani Kumar, Badal Soni, Dr Sumit Arora were also present.