Guwahati: Minister Ashok Singhal claims 5,000 houses given water supply, residents say still waiting

GUWAHATI: Urban affairs minister Ashok Singhal has claimed that the Guwahati Jal Board has expedited work on providing household water connections under the recently commissioned South-Central Water project and has covered nearly 5,000 households so far. However, many residents claimed that they have not received any connection even though they have applied for one three to four months ago.
The water project, construction of which had begun a decade ago and was supposed to be completed in 2014, was partially commissioned in December last year by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. With a capacity of 191 million litres per day, the project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is one of the four big water projects.
Singhal on Thursday said another 5,000 households will be covered under the second phase, which will begin from March 1. A total of 5,400 applications have been received by the Jal board so far.
Residents of several localities, including Rupnagar, Rudranagar and Amiyanagar, have claimed that they had applied for the home connection for drinking water under the project in November. However, the authorities concerned have not even laid the main pipeline in those areas for giving household connections.
The local residents, who depend either on private water supplies or on stream or pit for their daily needs, have urged the authorities to provide household connections at the earliest.