Hyderabad: Though the Central Sanctioning Monitoring Committee has approved Rs 1,623 crore under the JNNURM to lay water and sewer pipelines to residential areas in the city’s outskirts, including Hitec City, over 30 lakh residents will have to wait for at least another three years.
The peripheral areas of Serilingampally, Kukatpally, LB Nagar, Patancheru and Ramchandrapuram municipalities, which were brought under Greater Hyderabad limits in 2007, will benefit from this project.
Residents in these areas have been dependent on ground water or tanker water for daily use, however, with bore wells drying up, they solely rely on water tankers at present.
“Earlier, borewell water was used for non-drinking purposes. But now that they have dried, we are dependent on tanker water these days and have to spend over Rs 5000-6000 a month,” said Lalitha Iyer, a resident of Gachibowli.
Meanwhile in the slums of these seven municipalities, it is war when the water tankers arrive.
“Water tankers come to our area once in five days, sometimes once a week. Even then, the water we get is insufficient. We are compelled to buy 20-litre water cans for Rs 45 for the remaining days,” said Sultana Begum of LB Nagar.
“Generally, these projects are to be completed in 18 months, but by the time we call tenders and assign the project, it will be at least two years. However, water supply to these regions will improve once Krishna Phase III and Godavari Phase I are completed,” said J. Shayamala Rao, managing director, Water Board.
