Gurgaon: The 100 MLD water treatment plant (WTP) project planned on 50 acres of land in Kasan village to supply canal water to Manesar and nearby villages remains stuck due to non-availability of land.
Announced in May 2022 by then chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Kasan village falls under the gair mumkin pahar (non-cultivable hill) and this classification has prevented further progress as it requires special permissions under the Aravali Notification, 1992. The project was originally proposed by the public health engineering department (PHED) in 2001.
GMDA, however, has now sought the district administration's intervention to change the nature of the land to banjar kadeem (barren land), which would allow the project to proceed.
The project would cater to the water requirements of villages such as Manesar, Khoh, Kasan, Sehrawan, Nainwal, Fazilwas and Kukrola. In the absence of canals, residents in these areas are currently dependent on tubewells.
In 2019, the gram panchayat agreed to transfer the land to PHED for the construction of the WTP. However, PHED deferred the plan, citing the non-availability of land after these villages were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Manesar in Dec 2020. Subsequently, the implementation of the project was taken over by GMDA, but the change of land nature remained a challenging task. Apart from Nainwal, all six areas fall under the master plan of GMUC-2031.
According to GMDA, the proposed Kasan site is the only viable option to construct the WTP, which will draw raw water from the proposed Mewat Piped feeder near the Kundali-Manesar-Palwal expressway.
"We have already commissioned the water supply network in the urban areas of the Manesar municipal corporation. Now efforts are being made to provide canal water in rural areas of Manesar. As there is no other available land in Manesar, the proposed site at Kasan is crucial for the project implementation. We have sought the change of land use of the 50 acres from Gair Mumkin Pahad to Banjar Kadeem for the execution of the WTP project," said the senior official of GMDA.
The city, last year, extracted 214% of its rechargeable groundwater, highlighting severe overexploitation in the state. Rapid urbanisation and unauthorised extraction have also contributed to the crisis.
A study by the National Compilation on Dynamic Groundwater Resources of India indicated that in the future, Gurgaon, along with four other districts, would have no groundwater for use if immediate action is delayed and the region's water table is not replenished.