The Trinamool-run board in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) introduced five stainless steel water tankers on Thursday to be used for the distribution of drinking water among residents across the civic area.
Mayor Gautam Deb inaugurated the service. “We have introduced five tankers for the distribution of water in the different wards. Each of these tankers has a capacity of 3,000 litres,” he said.
Sources in the civic body said a sum of ₹10.67 lakhs has been spent on these tankers. These tankers will help distribute water for the next two days, Friday and Saturday, as during these days drinking water supply for the town will be stopped.
“The new intake well (through which water is drawn and stored at the treatment plant from the Teesta canal) will be made operational at the plant in Fulbari (on the southern outskirts of Siliguri). That is why water supply will be stopped for these two days. The tankers will come in use,” said the source.
SMC authorities, along with the state PHE department, will engage another 30 tankers to distribute water in different wards. It will also distribute two lakh pouches of water from its five borough offices.
“We came up with the new intake well to maintain an alternative arrangement so that the water supply doesn’t get disrupted during maintenance or removal of silt from the old intake well. A sum of ₹6.9 crore has been spent for the well,” the source added.
For Siliguri, the civic body has also initiated the work of a new drinking water project under the Amrut 2.0 scheme of the Centre with an estimated cost of ₹512 crore.
“As of now, around 50 million litres of water is supplied in the civic area every day, which is lower than the
demand. Once the new project is operational, around 130
million litres of water can be supplied in a day,” said an official.
The civic body has also formed a task force to prevent illegal drawing of drinking water.
“We will disconnect all such unauthorised water connections and necessary steps will be taken against the offenders,” he added.
