|
| Funding for more supply cheers Chandigarh planners |
| Vikas Sharma / Chandigarh Dec 26, 2009, 00:57 IST |
|
Rates still unviable, but begins experiment with harvesting, recycling
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation says its per capita supply of water is the highest in the country, at 249 litres per capita per day (lpcd), against the national standard of 158 lpcd.
However, supply is still below the demand, an important issue given the proposed Phase-V and VI expansions of the city. Chandigarh’s decadal population growth is 44 per cent, against the national average of 25 per cent.
Revenue from water supply is also well below spending, with rates not having been revised since 2002.
The daily requirement is estimated at 100 million gallons a day (mgd). The city gets 80 mgd at Kajouli, 27 km from here, on the Bhakra mainline canal. Of this, 10 mgd is pumped to the satellite city of Mohali and 3 mgd to Chandimandir (in Haryana). The other 67 MGD goes to Chandigarh. Another 20 MGD is sourced through 200-odd tubewells in the city.
For augmentation, the Union urban development ministry has recently approved a project to take another 40 MGD at Kajouli; of this, 29 MGD is for Chandigarh and the rest to neighbouring areas, including Mohali. This, officials say, should suffice for the next 25 years.
In addition, 10 MGD is to be sourced through a new plant, again okayed this year, which would treat sewerage water to make it fit for uses like gardening and car washes. To encourage such use, the CMC plans to supply this re-treated water at a subsidised rate of Rs 50 per acre per month.
Rainwater harvesting has also been made compulsory for all new buildings, both residential and commercial, including government ones. Existing government buildings are also supposed to convert, though no schedule has been mandated.
Chandigarh has 144,000 connections, of which 121,000 are metered. For unmetered connections, the supply is at a flat Rs 100 a month. The engineering department has proposed to raise these rates by 50 per cent, the first such hike since 2002; the proposal is still being studied.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
