Salt Lake mega plan: BMC seeks to replace 2,700 km water pipeline
Times of India | 25 November 2024
12 Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with a blueprint to revamp the 2,700 km-long water supply pipeline network in Salt Lake, which was laid during the township's inception in the late 1960s. The move comes at a time when — as BMC officials claim — demand for water has increased manifold due to the rise in Salt Lake's population, besides opening of new offices and commercial establishments.IPL 2025 mega auctionIPL Auction 2025: Who got whomIPL 2025 Auction: Updated Full Team Squads
"Previously, underground water was supplied to households across Salt Lake through submersible pumps. Due to prolonged use, the pipes narrowed down by three to four inches at many places owing to deposition of sediment. This resulted in reduced water pressure. If the old network of pipelines could be replaced, it is expected that the township would no longer face any water woes for the next 50 years or so," said BMC MMiC (water supply) Tulsi Sinha Roy, adding that the work was already going on to revamp all the overhead water tanks across Salt Lake.
Officials said a detailed project report on the plan had been prepared and submitted to the urban development department for scrutiny and approval.
The civic body's water supply department is also preparing a detailed project plan to supply filtered water for longer periods in Salt Lake. Presently, water is supplied in four shifts a day.
"The plan is to supply filtered water for longer hours," said an official. The present water supply system in Salt Lake consists of both the main distribution network and house-to-house connecting lines. There are a total of 17 overhead water tanks with 1.2 lakh gallon capacity each across Salt Lake.
Presently, BMC receives 11 MGD (million gallon per day) of water per day. Of this, 7 MGD comes from Tallah and the remaining 4 MGD comes from the New Town water treatment plant. Most of the filtered water is supplied to the Salt Lake area only.
Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is presently working on plans to set up a distribution network for supplying filtered water to households across Rajarhat Gopalpur with funds sanctioned under the Centre's AMRUT scheme.
At present, the entire Rajarhat-Gopalpur area covering Baguiati, Kestopur, Kaikhali, and surroundings under BMC ward numbers 1 to 28 depend mostly on underground water reserves.
The govt had also recently sanctioned Rs 6.6 crore to the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) for setting up the infrastructure to supply filtered water to two wards of BMC, covering the Kestopur area.