The construction of a water treatment plant that holds out the promise of ending water scarcity in large parts of Garia, Jadavpur and Tollygunge will begin before Puja this year, officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation said.
The plant will come up on a 4-acre plot near Briji Metro station, along the stretch of EM Bypass between Dhalai bridge and the Kamalgazi crossing.
The Rs 77-crore project will have a 27-month deadline from the day construction starts, a KMC official said.
The mayoral council of the civic body last week gave its nod to invite bids for the construction of the plant that will produce 10 million gallons of potable water in a day.
A senior official of the water supply department of the KMC said they expected to float tenders inviting bids early next month.
“We are expecting thatconstruction will begin around September,” said the official.
“Areas like Tollygunge, Jadavpur, Bijoygarh, Baghajatin, Garia, Patuli, Naktalaand Bansdroni will benefit from this project. Several pockets in these areas depend on water extracted from underground through pumps,” said a KMC official.
“The project is aimedat stopping the supply of underground water and replacing it will potable water supply. All pumps now being used to extract groundwater will be decommissioned after the plant starts producing water.”
The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) handed over the plot to the KMC in 2019. The Covid pandemic delayed the planning around the project.
The need to build a plant to produce more potable water for the Tollygunge-Garia-Jadavpur zone was felt many years back.
Neighbourhoods that will benefit from the new plant now get their share of potable water from the Dhapa and Garden Reach water treatment plants.
There are over 350 deep tube wells in the city and more than 80 per cent of these are in the water-scarce pockets of Tollygunge and Jadavpur, said a KMC official.
The 10 million-gallon plant in Briji will be dedicated to only a small part of the city.
Calcutta’s main water treatment plants are far larger in capacity. The Garden Reach water treatment plant can produce 210 million gallons of water in a day while the Palta one can produce 260 million gallons a day.
The existing distribution network will be used to supply the additional water produced in the Briji plant. A number of booster pumping stations built in these areas in the last few years be of help in distributing the water to remoter parts where water does not reach now.
The KMC is also working on augmenting the capacity of the Dhapa water treatment plant by another 10 million gallons per day. When the new plant in Briji is ready and the augmentation in Dhapa is complete, the additional water could solve the water crisis in many pockets, said a KMC official.