Rs 840-crore Buddha Nullah rejuvenation project nears completion

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, June 12

Soon, the highly-polluted Buddha nullah, a seasonal tributary of Sutlej flowing in Ludhiana, would become Buddha river, courtesy an ambitious Rs 840-crore rejuvenation project.

With the project entering advanced stage of completion, one of the most polluted water bodies, running almost parallel to Sutlej through most of Ludhiana district, including 14-km in Ludhiana city, which it bisects into two parts, before merging with Sutlej, would shed the infamous tag of “nullah”, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has said.

The first-of-its-type project had missed four deadlines to complete the capital work after facing teething problems and adversely hit due to Covid restrictions during the initial months after launch in December 2020.

With the project already achieving 90 per cent completion, the fresh deadline has been fixed as August 31.

Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, told The Tribune, here on Monday that the rejuvenation of Buddha Nullah has been taken up on topmost priority and the work was progressing fast to meet the fresh deadline.

Arora, who reviewed the progress of the project, was apprised by the MC Commissioner, Dr Shena Aggarwal, that several components of the project had already been completed while rest of them were in the advanced stage of completion and the pace of the ongoing work has been further accelerated to complete it by August 31.

She disclosed that a sum of Rs 460.97 crore had been spent so far, which accounted for 88.82 per cent of the total capital work cost of Rs 519 crore, while a sum of Rs 21.6 crore, which was 80.63 per cent of the total Rs 26.79 crore earmarked as operation and maintenance cost for construction period, has also been paid to the executing agency. Besides, Rs 294 crore would be spent on operation and maintenance cost for another 10 years after completion of construction.

While the project amount as per DPR (detailed project report) was Rs 650 crore, the work was awarded at Rs 839.79 crore, which included Rs 519 crore for capital work and Rs 320.79 crore as operation and maintenance cost. Besides, Rs 22 crore was earmarked as a provisional sum.

Dr Aggarwal informed Rajya Sabha MP that of the two new sewage treatment plants (STPs) being constructed, a 225-MLD capacity STP at Jamalpur, which was the biggest such facility in the state, had already been established while 75 per cent work to set up 60-MLD capacity STP at Balloke had been completed so far with the target to make it functional within next couple of months.

Under the domestic effluent management of the project, six intermediate pumping stations (IPSs) on the banks of Buddha Nullah were being installed of which two units – 12-MLD capacity at Tibba and 8-MLD capacity at Sundar Nagar – had been established and were under trial run, while 70 per cent work had been completed on 5-MLD capacity IPS at Kundanpuri, 68 per cent on 13-MLD capacity at Upkar Nagar, 66 per cent on LMH IPS, and 15 per cent progress had been achieved to set up another IPS near Gaushala.

The project also entails rehabilitation and repair of existing STPs and pumping stations under which the work on two STPs and MPSs including 105-MLD capacity at Balloke and another 50-MLD capacity at Bhattian had already been completed while 92 per cent work had been completed on another 111-MLD capacity STP and MPS at Bhattian and 50 per cent work had been achieved on another 152-MLD capacity STP and MPS at Balloke.

Under industrial waste management, three CETPs had been installed recently, which were being operated by Punjab Dyeing Association under the supervision of Punjab Pollution Control Board. These included 50-MLD and 40-MLD capacity two CETPs at Jail Road for Tajpur Road and Focal Point area industries, while another 15-MLD capacity CETP was made functional at Bahadurke Road to cover the industries in that area.

Besides, the work on dairy waste management has also picked up pace on construction of two ETPs for handling liquid waste from the dairy complex. While 26 per cent work had been completed on 3.75-MLD capacity ETP at Haibowal, 25 per cent work had been achieved on another 2.25-MLD capacity plant at Tajpur Road with a target to complete them till August 31.

The laying of pipeline along the Buddha Nullah banks had already been completed by placing 6,475 meters on the west side, 4,944 meters on east side and 650 meters from Kundanpuri to Upkar Nagar.

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