Upcoming Water Treatment Plant in New Town
A vick, Pune
Morethan a pipe dream | ||||
| As supply lines start to get laid along VIP Road, Sucheta Chakraborty says why the upcoming water treatment plant in New Town will help both townships | ||||
The state government has started laying a 11.5km water pipeline from Chitpore lockgate to New Town which promises to end the water supply woes of New Town and Salt Lake. Other than the twin townships, areas under South Dum Dum Municipality and Rajarhat also stand to gain. The public health engineering department and Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) are executing the project. Simplex Infrastructure has been roped in to build an intake jetty by the Hooghly, from where the water will be flown in. They are also laying down a pipeline of six ft diameter. Since the project would involve digging along streets, a committee has been formed with representatives from other government agencies like BSNL, the public works department, the irrigation department, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution and Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority. “Our water treatment plant at Tarulia is ready. It is a state-of-the-art plant with supervisory control and data acquisition. It would take another three years to complete the project,” said Debasish Sen, chairman cum managing director, Hidco. The system gathers information, such as where a leak on a pipeline has occurred, transfers the information back to a central site, alerting the home station that the leak has occurred, carries out the necessary analysis and control, such as determining if the leak is critical, and displays the information in a logical and organised fashion. Kestopur Canal carries the sewage water of Salt Lake and its adjoining areas to Kulti-Bidyadhari river in the South 24-Parganas. During the Left Front regime, it had been decided that Hooghly water would be released into Kestopur Canal by opening the Chitpore lockgate but the plan was abandoned after the current government came to power. “Water, according to the earlier plan, was to be drawn from river Hooghly. But its quality would have been unfit for consumption even after the conventional water treatment. So we have mooted plans for a dedicated underground pipeline to bring Hooghly water to the New Town treatment plant,” said Sen. Though a calculation has been made about the proportion of water that other areas adjoining New Town would receive, Hidco is not keen to disclose it now. The treated water would be stored in 22 water tanks, located at various points of the township. At present, New Town gets underground water drawn with the help of 30 submersible pumps that cater to the needs of the 15,000-odd families of the township as well as a floating populace of 50,000 who visit daily. According to estimates of Hidco officials, New Town would eventually be home to around 1 million people consuming 100 million gallons of water per day. Taint from New Town taps Residents are waiting for the day when they need not complain about the quality of the water from their taps. “As we are getting underground water, the iron content is very high. The milk-white tiles of our toilet have picked up yellow stain and no amount of scrubbing helps,” said Sushmita Mullick of Utsa The Condoville. A resident of Balaka Abasan has had to give up wearing white. “I have stopped buying white dresses though it is my favourite colour. It is impossible to retain the colour after a wash or two in the water we get,” said Sugandha Tripathy. A resident of CJ Block admitted that it was the water problem of New Town that stalled his plans to shift from Salt Lake. “We have rented out our New Town flat. We will shift only after the water problem is solved.” Salt Lake prepares for more Though Hidco is not committing the volume of water it would part with, Bidhannagar Municipality is getting prepared for a share of the supply pie. Three reservoirs will be built in the three residential sectors of Salt Lake for storing the extra water that the township hopes to receive once the Tarulia water treatment plant starts operation. “We have asked for land in Sector I, II and III from the urban development department. Three water reservoirs would come up on these plots,” said municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty.
According to sources at the municipality, Salt Lake would be getting 10 million gallons of water per day. As Bidhannagar Municipality does not have the expertise to build reservoirs, talks are on with the state public health and engineering department for building the reservoirs. In order to store this huge volume of supply, infrastructure needs to be built in advance. At present, sweet water from Tallah-Palta Waterworks is stored in a central reservoir located at Central Park. It can store up to 5.5 million gallons of water. Salt Lake at present is receiving a total of around 6.5 to 7 million gallons of water per day, in two installments of 3 to 3.5 million gallons from the Tallah Palta Waterworks which gets stored in the central reservoir. Bidhannagar Municipality has apprised minister Firhad Hakim and his urban development department about the need to beef up storage capacity in Salt Lake. “As our storage capacity is limited, we have to immediately pump out our excess water to the various water tanks scattered around the township to avoid overflow,” said an official of the municipality. Salt Lake at present has 15 water tanks. The capacity of each of the three reservoirs has not been decided yet. “Plans are at a preliminary stage,” said a civic official. Chakraborty informed that it would take Rs 12 crore to build the reservoirs. “We don’t have money. We will request the municipal affairs minister to assist us with funds,” said Chakraborty. |
