Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 12

After facing teething problems and getting adversely hit due to Covid restrictions during the initial months, the work on the ambitious Rs 840-crore rejuvenation project of the highly polluted Buddha Nullah, a seasonal tributary of the Sutlej, has finally picked up pace, the government has confirmed.

The rejuvenation project, aimed at giving a new lease of life to one of the most polluted nullahs, which runs almost parallel to the Sutlej through most of Ludhiana district, including 14 km in Ludhiana city, before merging with the Sutlej, was nearing one-fourth completion, the officials have said.

Sharing details, MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal told The Tribune here on Friday that the pace of the ongoing work on the project has been accelerated to cover up the initial delay and till date, 22 per cent of the total work has been completed at an expenditure of Rs 72 crore.

The development assumes significance as only 11 per cent progress was achieved in the first eight months till July end after starting the work on December 2, while another 11 per cent work progress has been achieved within the next three months from August to October end, which shows that the pace of work has been more than doubled.

Though the ongoing work is yet to meet the target pace, the gap between the target and achievement has been narrowed down, which is likely to be met shortly. As per the target fixed in the contract, the physical progress on the project work was expected to complete 30 per cent till October end.

Under the project, the scope of work included construction of two new sewage treatment plants (STPs) of 225 MLD and 60 MLD each at Jamalpur and Balloke, respectively, six new intermediate pumping stations (IPS) on the banks of the Buddha Nullah to divert the waste water, laying pipeline along the nullah banks to carry waste water from IPS to respective STP, two effluent treatment plants (ETPs) of 2.25 MLD and 3.75 MLD capacity each for handling waste water flow from dairy complexes at Tajpur road and Haibowal, rehabilitation of two existing STPs of 111 MLD and 152 MLD on UASB technology at Bhattian and Balloke, respectively, one-time repair and overhauling of existing two STPs of 50 MLD and 105 MLD based on SBR technology at Bhattian and Balloke, besides operation and maintenance of all these components for 10 years after construction and 21 months during the construction period.

As of date, the work on 225 MLD new STP was completed 16 per cent, six ILPs 10 per cent, pipeline 50 per cent, rehabilitation of existing 111 MLD STP 20 per cent, repair and overhauling of 50 MLD STP 57 per cent, and 105 MLD STP 43 per cent.

“The goal of the project is to close all the outlets from where the waste water enters into the Buddha Nullah, collecting and transferring the flow of these outlets to the nearby sewage treatnebt plants, which will treat the waste water to ensure that no untreated water flows into the nullah,” said the Municipal Corporation Commissioner.

The work, which was awarded to a Mumbai-based joint venture group at the capital cost of Rs 519 crore besides the operation and maintenance cost of Rs 321 crore, is scheduled

to be completed by December 1, 2022.

The project was launched to check the existing 625 MLD untreated domestic waste water discharged directly into the nullah and the future discharge, if any.

The major work under the rejuvenation of the 47.55-km-long Buddha Nullah has been awarded for the domestic waste water management.

Experienced agency

The joint venture group, which was undertaking the project, has experience of executing several sewerage and STP projects at Aurangabad, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Udaipur, Goa, Tiptur (Karnataka). The Aurangabad project, costing Rs 464 crore, included construction, operation and maintenance of 161 MLD STP. The agency was also executing sewerage and STP works at Guntur, Bangalore, Sagar (Madhya Pradesh), Palwal, Chennai, Delawas (Rajasthan), Noida, Vietnam and Ukraine.

MC’s effort

Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) has also initiated a massive effort to tackle the problem of solid waste dumping into the Buddha Nullah with the help of fencing, solid waste collection points, cleaning of debris, strict vigilance with CCTV cameras and creating awareness among people for solid waste management. A special awareness campaign was also launched in December last with the help of NCC and NSS volunteers of seven local colleges.

Besides, the improvement of environment micro-forestation, landscaping and beautification along the Buddha Nullah has also been planned in the next phase.