The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has got hold of a four-acre plot near Briji Metro station, off the Bypass, where a water treatment plant will be set up to meet the rising demand in parts of Jadavpur and Tollygunge.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) handed over the plot to the civic body last week. It is located to the east of the stretch of the Bypass between Dhalai bridge and Kamalgazi.

A senior official of the corporation said the plant would produce 10 million gallons of water in a day and help ease the crisis that residents of large parts of southern suburbs face. The crisis intensifies during summer.

Golf Green, Ranikuthi, Tollygunge, parts of Kasba, Anandapur and Mukundapur are some of the places where water shortage is acute.

As a temporary solution the civic body is installing deep tube wells in these places but consumption of groundwater over a prolonged period affects health. Groundwater is often rich in iron and arsenic, both of which can trigger a host of health problems.

A water resource engineer said treated surface water was best from public health point of view.

The Telegraph reported on Tuesday that the CMC had installed about 45 deep tube wells in Calcutta over the past year.

Most of them were in pockets of Jadavpur, Tollygunge and Mukundapur, where the problem of water scarcity is severe.

A resident of Mukundapur said the water she got at home was salty. “This happens because what she and others get is a mixture of surface water and groundwater drawn by deep tube wells,” a CMC engineer said.

The corporation produces 437 million gallons of surface water every day but that is not enough to meet the city’s demand.

The CMC runs five water treatment plants across the city. An engineer said the largest plant, at Palta in North 24-Parganas, produces 225 million gallons of water a day.

The ones at Garden Reach, Dhapa, Jorabagan and Watgunge produce 180 million gallons, 24 million gallons, 5 million gallons and 3 million gallons daily.

The Dhapa treatment plant is the most recent of the five, unveiled in December 2014.

“The 10 million gallons water that the treatment plant in Briji will produce daily will go a long way in meeting the supply shortfall in places like Mukundapur, and parts of Tollygunge and Jadavpur,” a CMC official said. “We are also augmenting the capacity of the Garden Reach, Dhapa and the Palta plants.”

Tollygunge gets water from the Garden Reach plant. The civic official said the additional water that the Garden Reach and Dhapa plants would produce and the water from the new plant would help reduce the shortage.

A public policy consultant said the civic body should build a plant of higher capacity. “The population in the south and south-eastern suburbs will increase further. Keeping that in mind the civic body should have gone for a bigger plant,” the consultant said.

The handing over of the plot near Briji Metro station means the civic body can now start preparing a detailed scheme for the project. The official said the design of the plant depended on the shape of the plot.

“We received a four-acre plot last week from the CMDA. We have started preparing the detailed project report of the plant,” a CMC official said.

Officials failed to say by when the plant would be ready.