Rourkela: The major towns of Sundargarh district are set to get round-the-clock metered water supply by the end of this year, an official said here Saturday. “We are almost completing all our formalities in four of the major towns of the district — Sundargarh, Rajgangpur, Biramitrapur, and Rourkela. In fact, the pilot run has already begun with the CM inaugurating one such project at Biramitrapur last August,” informed Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) GM Pratap Keshari Mohanty here. Mohanty added that Rajgangpur command centre has five district metered areas (DMA) among which Ranibandha is already functional with residents getting round-the-clock water supply. The rest of the DMAs will be operational in the month of October. In the first week of October, the trial run will begin and by November the entire town will be getting metered water round the clock. The automation process is going on.
Besides, the old pumps and other accessories are being replaced and that will be over by the end of this month, informed the GM. In Sundargarh there are nine DMAs under the command centre. Work is almost over with one DMA operational at this moment and a trial run going on. “The rest will begin by the end of this month and in September the pilot run for all the DMAs will begin. At this moment automation is going on in the rest eight and very little work is left,” informed GM Mohanty.
In Rourkela, there are 35 DMAs under the command centre. Of these, the DMAs 32, 35, and 36, belonging to Jagda, Vedvyas, and Jhartarang are operational now. “At this moment we are checking their efficacy through trial runs and those will be over soon.
For Rourkela we have kept December as the month when the entire city will get water supply 24×7 through the meter system,” informed the officer. Only the Koel Nagar project is going to take some time to finish due to some technical issues. “For Koel Nagar and its adjoining areas like Shakti Nagar we are going to set up independent plants and the work has already begun. Meanwhile, work on 17 plants is already over and soon we will start a trial run,” Mohanty said. Rourkela witnessed the worst water crisis in the year 2016 when the water supply was seriously affected due to an alarming depletion in the water flow in Koel and Sankha rivers. At that time the need for the barrage was felt which is now under construction. Keeping in mind the flow of water in Brahmani and the surplus water that will get stored after the construction of the barrage, the 24×7 water supply concept was planned. Similar plans were also undertaken simultaneously for the rest of the areas.
