Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim on Thursday inaugurated two water supply facilities in the Charu Avenue area and near Vivekananda Park on Southern Avenue.
The facilities include two underground water reservoirs, which will also serve as capsule booster water pumping stations. These facilities will benefit thousands of residents in the city.
One of the pumping stations was opened in the Charu Avenue area. The second facility was inaugurated on Southern Avenue. The water pumping station on Charu Avenue was built, keeping in mind thousands of residents, including those living in parts of Jhaldar Math, who were dependent on groundwater. The facility on Anil Roy Road near Vivekananda Park would provide water to thousands in the neighbourhood, explained a KMC official from the water supply department.
The civic water department will build several other water pumping stations in south Kolkata, especially in Jadavpur and Tollygunge, to reduce the dependence on groundwater. The KMC, which has completed building more than 20 capsule booster pumping stations over the past two years, plans to build about 15 additional such water pumping stations in the next two years.
Supply of potable water to the Tollygunge-Jadavpur zone and areas off EM Bypass will depend on the enhancement of the Dhapa water treatment facility, besides the construction of the Garia treatment plant.
The KMC water supply department has decided to augment the capacity of the facility at Dhapa. For the same, the civic body is required to spend Rs 100 crore in about six months time to complete the project. The Dhapa water facility has a capacity of about 30 million gallons. "After the water treatment plant got operational in 2015, we decided to augment its capacity by 20 million gallons for providing water to additional neighbourhoods along EM Bypass and in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur zone. We have decided to augment the Dhapa water treatment plant capacity by about 20 million gallons. This was decided after a survey of areas along EM Bypass was done. We need to expand the infrastructure at the existing treatment plant for this," said the KMC official.
The civic body had also taken up the construction of another treatment plant near Dhalai Bridge area to cater to the needs of residents of Garia, Patuli, Baghajatin Ramgarh, some parts of Jadavpur, besides EM Bypass area. It will get the supply of water from Hooghly in Kidderpore. The water will then be supplied to pipelines along Tolly Nullah. The water facility will start functioning in about two years, said an official from the KMC.