New Delhi: A total of Rs 700 crore was allocated in the Union Budget for carrying out reforms in power and water sectors in the national capital. Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed Rs 500 crore for reform in the water sector while Rs 200 crore has been set aside for reform in the power sector.
The city has been facing long power cuts during the peak summer months despite adequate availability of power. Major power transmission lines often trip when the load increases. People in several areas of Delhi had a harrowing time for almost three weeks after a storm on May 30 damaged the transmission network. Restoration of the damaged network took nearly 20 days because of which many areas in the city faced long outages.
Delhi Government has already drawn up plans to streamline the water distribution system in the city as many areas still do not have piped water supply. A top official in Delhi government said the central assistance of Rs 700 crore will help carrying out reform in both power and water sectors. A separate allocation of Rs 50 crore has been made to address long-term water supply issues in the city.
Jaitley said construction of long-pending Renuka Dam would be taken up on priority which would increase water supply to Delhi. The Renuka Dam project envisaged supply of 275 million gallons of water daily to Delhi and also generate 40 MW of electricity for Himachal Pradesh. The current average demand for potable water in Delhi is around 1,100 mgd (million gallons per day) and the Delhi Jal Board supplies around 800 mgd water across the city after treating raw water in its treatment plants.
The demand is projected to touch around 1,400 mgd by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2017. Delhi relies heavily on neighbouring states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for the supply of raw water. Large parts of the city witnessed a severe water shortage in the last couple of months and people even resorted to protests in many localities demanding water.
