2 more CETPs, 200 cusecs of fresh water to clean Buddha Nullah

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 23

Two more common effluent treatment plants (CETPs), with a capacity to treat 90 MLD (million litres per day) domestic and industrial effluent being directly discharged into the highly polluted Buddha Nullah, a seasonal tributary of the Sutlej, will be made operational by July 31, the government has confirmed.

With this, three CETPs, with a total capacity of 105 MLD will check the discharge of untreated domestic and partially treated domestic and industrial effluent directly into the nullah.

While a CETP with 15 MLD treatment capacity was already operational, other two CETPs, with 50 and 40 MLD capacity each, were in the advanced stage of completion.

Besides, 200 cusecs of clean water from the Sirhind canal will also be released into the drain by the month-end, a senior officer told The Tribune, here on Friday.

This was part of the Rs 840-crore rejuvenation project to give a new lease of life to one of the most polluted nullahs, which runs almost parallel to the Sutlej through most of Ludhiana district, including 14-km in the city, before merging with the river.

The project was launched on January 12 to check the existing 625 MLD untreated domestic waste water discharged directly into the nullah and the future discharge, if any.

The major work under the rejuvenation of the 47.55-km-long Buddha Nullah has been awarded for domestic waste water management.

While the capital cost of the project will be Rs 519 crore, the 10-year operation and maintenance will cost Rs 321 crore.

The entire project will be completed within two years. While the project will be completely in operation by November 2022, some components will be put to operation earlier.

The scope of work included setting up of two new sewage treatment plants (STPs) with tertiary filtration for treating 285 MLD waste water, two effluent treatment plants for the treatment of six MLD waste water from two dairy clusters, refurbishment of four existing STPs with a treatment capacity of 418 MLD, infrastructure for transfer of waste water overflowing into the nullah to the STPs, 10-year operation and maintenance of the entire infrastructure.

As per the agreement, the contractor will provide Rs 55-crore credit for gas generated from two existing STPs (UASB technology plants), and will take care of additional unforeseen works like transfer of domestic/ industrial waste water and additional treatment capacity for domestic waste water, worth Rs 22 crore.

Work allotted

The work has been awarded to KIPL Limited and GVPR Engineers Limited, a joint venture, after an online bidding process. The venture has experience of executing several sewerage and STP projects at Aurangabad, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Udaipur, Goa, Tiptur (Karnataka). The Aurangabad project, costing Rs 464 crore, included construction, operation and maintenance of the 161 MLD STP. The agency was also executing sewerage and STP works at Guntur, Bengaluru, Sagar (Madhya Pradesh), Palwal, Chennai, Delawas (Rajasthan), Noida, Vietnam and Ukraine.

MC makes huge efforts

Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) has also initiated massive efforts to tackle the problem of solid waste dumping into the nullah, with the help of fencing, solid waste collection points, cleaning of debris, strict vigilance with CCTV cameras and creating awareness among people for solid waste management. A special awareness campaign was launched on December 28 last with the help of NCC and NSS volunteers of seven local colleges.

Besides, the improvement of environment micro-forestation, landscaping and beautification along the nullah has also been planned in the next phase.

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