Questions linger on Narmada water project funding

The long-awaited Narmada water supply project for Bhopal will now come up in April. This has raised questions about its funding. The project cost, which was estimated at Rs 650 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Development Mission, has now escalated to Rs 1,000 crore approximately. This would shoot up the water supply charges in Bhopal city.

The project, which has an estimated capacity of 185 million litres per day, is two years behind its scheduled completion date. A consortium of Kirloskar Brothers, Koya Construction and VA Tech has been given extensions five times for the project completion since June 2009.

Urban administration minister Babulal Gaur has, however, clarified that the government has penalised the consortium during July 2010 to November 2010 at Rs 10,000 per day and during December 2010 to March 2011. “I will visit the project site and see the progress,” Gaur said.

“The revised cost will escalate the water charges in Bhopal city from existing Rs 160 per month to as high as Rs 300 per month,” said a source in the urban development department, “A department official had planned to supply water through ‘build, own and operate’ basis but local leaders torpedoed his plan. The new project would require constructing 62 water supply overhead tanks and laying of supply pipelines at Rs 600 crore against the earlier Rs 415 crore.”

According to a government estimate, Bhopal will have to resolve the water crisis by 2022. The total demand will reach 500 million litres per day if consumption stands at 150 litres water per person per day.