Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s dream of uninterrupted water supply to 12 peripheral circles in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is yet to be fulfilled by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewer-age Board (HMWSSB).
The deadline to complete the project was December 2018, but several parts of the city still get only sporadic water as HMWSSB had failed to lay a new network and enhance the supply system. As a result, people in some areas receive water just once in four days despite the bountiful rainfall.
The government accorded administrative sanction for the water supply distribution network project for the peripheral circles of GHMC at an estimated cost of Rs 1,900 crore through GO No.138 dated October 21, 2015. The project funding is Rs 1,700 crore loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) and Rs 200 crore through the state government budgetary support. The project cost was later reduced to Rs 1,400 crore and the project was to be completed by May 2016. It has been given several extensions and the final deadline is now December.
The Water Board has on several occasions declared that the project has been completed and water connections have been given to residents of Alwal, Kapra, Uppal, Ramacha-ndrapuram, Quthubull-apur, LB Nagar, Gaddi-annaram, Rajendranagar, Kukatpally, Serilingam-pally and Patancheru circles.
Though most of the 56 reservoirs have been completed, the Water Board has missed out supplying water to vital areas where it has not laid new pipelines.
Instead, it has been supplying water on the same old network in several circles. Officials refused to give the number of new connections.
Due to this lethargy of the Water Board, residents of KPHB, Gachibowli, Pappulguda, Manikonda, Gopanpally and several other areas on the city’s outskirts receive water just once in 10 days! This, even though rainfall has been plentiful and reservoirs have reached their full tank levels.
“Several areas in 12 peripheral circles are not feasible for laying new pipelines. The board has given new connections in feasible locations,” a senior Water Board official claimed.
However, the board refuses to divulge data pertaining to the number of new connections given. Highly placed sources in the HMWSSB told Deccan Chronicle that the board has not given new connections but is supplying water on the same old network which has been causing severe inconvenience to about 15 lakh residents residing in the outskirts.
