The Adityapur Municipal Corporation has come up with a bright idea to tackle the problem of water crisis this summer.

In the absence of a proper piped water network and erratic power supply, storage is usually a huge challenge. To overcome this, the civic body plans to arm each of the 35 wards with a deep borewell, a 4,000-litre overhead tank and a solar-powered water pump to ensure that residents get water throughout summer.

The AMC, which had sent the proposal to the urban development department for approval, is expecting to get its nod this month.

Civic body officials said plan, if implemented, would come as a great relief to people who face a lot difficulties during summer due to water crisis.

Out of 49,335 households having a population of around 2.5 lakh, there are only 7,800 water connections. The rest depend on borewells or water tanks that are sent by the civic body to different wards each day.

AMC executive officer Deepak Sahay said, “Power problems hamper water storage. Thus we came up with the idea of solar water pumps and submitted a proposal to the urban development department. We really hope that the proposal is okayed so that we can float the tender.” The entire project is estimated to cost around Rs 2.75 crore.

“Although the foundation of a mega drinking water project was laid recently, it will take time to become operational. Till then, this project should take care of the water crisis,” he added.

Last month, chief minister Raghubar Das had laid the foundation stone of a Rs 385-crore piped drinking water project in Adityapur. The project is likely to be completed in 36 months.

In all, 500km of pipelines would be laid to benefit a population over 2.5 lakh through 11 additional water towers and two filtration plants in the Adityapur municipality area.

Currently, the Sitarampur dam, which has a filtration plant with a capacity of 5 MLD only, can supply piped water to around 7,800 families.