After 10 years, South Central Guwahati water project opens partially today

GUWAHATI: The South Central Guwahati water project, which is expected to ease some of the capital’s water woes, will be partially commissioned on Wednesday afternoon after a decade of construction with a target to cover around 13,000 households in the Gauhati east assembly constituency initially.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will inaugurate the project in the presence of Kunihiko Kawazu, who is the deputy chief of mission, Embassy of Japan in India, and Jun Tsumori, counsellor of the Embassy of Japan in India, along with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) India chief Saito Mitsunori. JICA is the funding agency of the project.
Guwahati Jal Board secretary Panchami Choudhury told TOI, “The board began the trial run of the project in July. Connections to 1,500 households have been given during the trial run. The project has a capacity of supplying 191 million litres per day, of which 60 million litres per day will be commissioned under the partial commissioning on Wednesday.”
She added that Chandmari, Geetanagar, Mother Teressa road and Piyoli Phukan Nagar will be covered in the first phase. “The second phase of the commissioning may be in March. The project will be commissioned in a phased manner. All depends on the progress of the work of laying pipelines and other related works in the newer areas,” she added.
The project, once fully commissioned, will cover the entire Gauhati east assembly constituency, which has over 2 lakh population, and parts of Dispur assembly constituency, which has a population of over 4 lakh.
The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), the executing agency of the project, delayed the completion of the plant by citing various reasons, including issues in handing over the land for the construction of water reservoir sites, water treatment plant, permission from the Railways and clearance from NHAI and APWD for road crossing during the laying of pipes and the construction of culverts.
GMDA sources said the re-alignment of the primary grid network, delay in submission of design drawing, extraction and the damage of a huge length of already laid water pipes in different project areas by PWD and other agencies were some of the other main reasons for the delay in the construction.