Work to start on 24-hr canal water supply to Amritsar by month-end

A World Bank team will visit Amritsar on March 3 to give a presentation on the project. Tenders will be floated in a few days. KARAMJIT SINGH

RINTU, Amritsar mayor

AMRITSAR : Residents of the holy city will get 24-hour canal water supply soon with work on a ₹2,260 crore World Bank project in this regard starting in March.

The project with a deadline of five years was first announced by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh in August 2017.

It will replace the existing groundwater supply infrastructure of the city.

“A World Bank team will visit Amritsar on March 3 to give a presentation on the project. Tenders will also be floated the same month. Since water pipelines will be repaired and changed, the project will be completed in the next five years,” mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said.

As per plan, Amritsar city will get canal water from Main Branch Lower (MBL) canal, which originates from the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC).

In the first phase of the project, the municipal corporation (MC), the custodian of the project, will build 17 tube wells and 11 over-head storage reservoirs in the city; the Upper Bari Doab Canal canal will also be cleaned up. Later, pipelines will be repaired and new infrastructure installed.

“The MC runs 397 tube-wells and the city consumes 200 million litres of per day (MLD) of water. Canal water is fit for consumption, and we have the required availability. The ground water level of the city has dipped to 100-feet and this project will help save ground water and also give another facility to the city,” the mayor added.

Recently, the municipal corporation House had passed a resolution to implement the state government’s water tariff policy in the city.

After the implementation of the water tariff policy, the civic body would fix and revise water tariff. Meters are to be installed in every household and commercial unit.

The mayor added that the new water tariff policy will also help lower water wastage.

According to the government’s plan, the surface water scheme will replace the existing groundwater supply, thus addressing the serious concern of the region which is facing groundwater depletion and cases of vector-borne diseases.

In the previous regime, the MC had sent a detailed report on the project to the World Bank and the state government, but the government dropped the plan.