Mayor Gautam Deb said on Monday that efforts were on to set up a new intake well to draw water from the Teesta canal and add it to the existing drinking water project in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) area.

Thousands of Siliguri residents have been grappling with drinking water scarcity for over a week because of silt deposits in the existing intake well — the inlet point through which water is drawn from the Teesta canal to the water treatment plant at Fulbari on the southern outskirts of Siliguri. The supply of water, which was already much below demand, in the civic area has further declined these days.

A considerable section of the residents of all 47 wards of Siliguri is buying drinking water and finding it tough to carry out household chores because of the erratic supply.

“The de-siltation of the existing intake well is in progress. We have asked technical experts of the state PHE department, who have arrived here from Calcutta, to identify a spot for a new intake well. The new well can be used as an alternative if there is any problem with the existing well. The state has approved a sum of Rs 6.9 crore for the new well. We want to start the work by September and finish it by November,” Deb told journalists after holding a meeting with officials of the PHE department and the civic body.

Sources said around 3,000 million litres of water were drawn from the Teesta canal every day and after purification, about 55 million litres of drinking water are pumped across the city.

“It is much below the daily demand of around 80 million litres. The required quantity of unpurified water cannot be drawn from the canal because of silt deposits in the intake well. This affected the water supply in the city. After the PHE department was engaged, around 2,400 million litres can be drawn through the well now. The work is still in progress to draw more water,” said a source in the civic body.

That is why the SMC is planning to build an alternative intake well as an immediate alternative.

The drinking water plant had been built at Fulbari in the early nineties and considering the surge in the population since then, the existing infrastructure is inadequate to meet the daily demand.

To address the issue, the Centre approved a new drinking water project of Rs 509 crore a few months ago.

“Three agencies have participated in the tender process that was floated for the water project. As of now, technical experts of the PHE department and the SMC are scrutinising the details. We want the work to commence at the earliest,” said the mayor.

According to the plan, water would be drawn for the new project from the Teesta and not from its canal.

Deb said the SMC was planning another drinking water project — a water treatment plan with a distribution network — at northwest of Siliguri and the funds had been approved. “The plan is to draw water from the Teesta near Sevoke. The project can come up in the Baikunthapur area. We will soon identify areas which will be covered by the project,” said Deb.