GUWAHATI: The long-pending water supply project in Guwahati assisted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has finally been partially commissioned after several delays.
Under the first phase of the commissioning, around 100 households have received house service connections in the Uzan Bazar and Chenikuthi areas, as per the Guwahati Jal Board officials.
JICA is assisting a water supply project in the Northern Guwahati region as well as in South-Central Guwahati. The project was initiated to ensure uninterrupted 24X7 water supply to the respective regions of the city.
“Currently the partial commissioning of the JICA project is underway and 100 households have been provided with the house service connections till now. The trial is ongoing in these households and they are currently receiving 24X7 water supply,” informed Rupjyoti Talukdar, executive engineer of Guwahati Jal Board.
However, the billing is yet to be put in place for these connections, said authorities as it is still in the trial period.
Officials informed that the JICA project has been completed 60 per cent till now and they have further received 700 more applications for house service connections.
Further, construction of the water treatment plant (WTP) is also ongoing for which the work is 55 per cent complete.
“The work of the distribution network is also in progress simultaneously and we hope to finish it by March 2021,” Talukdar told G Plus.
Under partial commissioning, the project will cover areas including Uzan Bazar, Fancy Bazar, Pan Bazar, Dighalipukhuri, Chenikuthi and Chandmari.
The Northern Guwahati Water Supply Project is slated to provide 37 million litres per day (MLD) of water to North Guwahati, once completed, whereas the South Central Water Supply Project will provide 191 million litres per day (MLD) water to the South Central region.
The officials informed that the loan period for the project by JICA will be over by July 2022 so they are trying to complete the entire project by this time.
The total project cost is estimated to be around Rs 1,450 crores. Out of this, Rs 1,426 crores is coming as a loan from JICA and the rest from the state government.
The JICA project has missed several deadlines due to the sluggish pace of work over the past few years since it began. The officials have cited reasons like delay in land acquisition and contractor issues for this.
Further, they informed that the work gets delayed again during the monsoon season and the festival period also proves to be a challenge since they are unable to find labourers during that time.
