Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued a work order to augment the capacity of the water treatment plant in Dhapa, which supplies potable water to large parts of south-eastern Kolkata.
The project, which the KMC said would continue for 26 months, would result in an increase in the capacity of the plant by 20 million gallons a day, civic officials said.
The plant can now produce 30 million gallons of potable water a day. After the capacity expansion, it will be able to produce 50 million gallons a day.
“Once the current augmentation project is over, there will be no further scope to increase the capacity of the Dhapa plant,” a senior KMC official said.
The Dhapa plant supplies water to areas between Park Circus and Science City, along both sides of the Park Circus connector, and to areas on both sides of EM Bypass between Science City and Patuli.
“We issued the work order for the capacity augmentation of the Dhapa water treatment plant in December. The project cost is Rs 132 crore and the project has to be completed within 26 months from the issue of the work order,” the official said.
When the plant was inaugurated in December 2014, it was believed that the facility would end the crisis of potable water in large parts of Kasba and Jadavpur.
The severity of the crisis has reduced but there are still many pockets in Kasba and Jadavpur, where residents complain about low water pressure or inadequate water supply.
Many pockets in these neighbourhoods still receive a mix of water from the Dhapaplant and underground water. Many of the large residential complexes use pumps to extract underground water.
A senior KMC official said the population in south-eastern Kolkata — in places like Mukundapur, Anandapur, Kalikapur, Nayabad and Panchasayar — has risen rapidly over the last few years.
“Many new housing complexes have come up on both sides of EM Bypass, especially to the south of Ruby. There are hundreds of flats in these complexes. With the spurt in population, the demand for potable water has shot up,” the official said.
“Once the capacity augmentation of the Dhapa plant is complete, we would like to decommission more pumps that extract underground water,” said the senior official.
The five water treatment plants of the KMC— in Palta, Garden Reach, Dhapa, Jorabagan and Watgunge —together produce 468 million gallons of water every day for the city.