Chandigarh's water storage capacity to double

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

The city is set to get a breather from water shortage during the summer as the Municipal Corporation has decided to upgrade the water storage capacity from the existing 45 million gallons per day (MGD) to 90 MGD using its own funds.

The agenda regarding spending own funds for the purpose is going to be tabled at the February 25 House meeting for approval.

The MC had last year sought Rs 38 crore from the UT, but since the latter “kept sitting over the demand”, the civic body has now decided to upgrade the facility by spending from its own pocket.

The Sector 39 waterworks reservoir receives supply from the Kajauli waterworks. At present, the waterworks has only half-day underground water storage capacity. Its capacity is inadequate and the water stored in the morning is supplied in the evening, while the evening storage is supplied in the morning.

It has led to frequent “low or no water supply” in Chandigarh. Thus, during any leakage in the pipeline from Kajauli to Chandigarh, the city witnesses severe water crisis as the Sector 39 reservoir runs out of water.

According to a report, in the past three years, 246 cases of breakdown of water supply have been reported due to leakage.

At its House meeting in October last year, the civic body had approved the agenda to increase the storage capacity. It later wrote to the Administration for funds. However, the corporation did not get a response to its repeated requests in this regard.

At present, there is demand of 90-95 MGD of water. In summer, it rises to 120-125 MGD. Chandigarh has a water availability of 120 MGD.

Work on providing 24X7 water supply in Mani Majra will start soon. The agenda regarding it will be tabled at the MC House meeting.

The heavily populated Mani Majra block will be given round-the-clock supply.