Sanjauli to get 24-hour water by year-end

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 23

The dream of Shimla residents to have 24-hour water supply will be a reality with the Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam (SJPN) putting a plan in place for round-the-clock supply in Sanjauli.

“Plan for the 24-hour water supply in Sanjauli is ready. The hydraulic design has been finalised and data base of consumers is ready while the tendering process is on,” said Managing Director, SJPN, Dharmendra Gill, adding that Sanjauli residents would get the uninterrupted water supply by the year-end.

The state capital saw the worst water crisis last year and water was supplied after seven or eight days in several localities, warranting the intervention of the High Court and daily monitoring by the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary.

However, measures taken by the SJPN eased the situation and the highest ever 60.40 MLD pumping was done on March 31 against the installed capacity of 54 MLD. The pumping on Monday was 49.26 MLD.

Referring to suspicious water samples found recently, Gill said water was checked at the main sources of the Giri and the Guma. Hourly monitoring of water was done at the main reservoir and Sanjauli and they were ensuring 3 mg of chlorine against the prescribed norms of 0.5 mg per litre to remove the possibility of contamination.

At present, 20 water samples were taken and even the faulty samples had 1.5 mg chlorine, he said, adding that two additional parameters, PH value and turbidity, would also be measured and instructions had been issued that all samples would be taken by junior engineers, trained by the IGMC, Shimla.