Now Reading: Guwahati water project delay forces residents to buy tanker water
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Guwahati water project delay forces residents to buy tanker water
The Story in Brief
Residents of south-eastern Guwahati are buying water from private tankers at Rs 300 to Rs 700 per household after a borewell they depended on dried up, as the South-East Guwahati Water Supply Project remains incomplete. The project, originally scheduled to begin in 2013, has faced repeated delays.
The Citizens’ Forum for Expedited Implementation of the project submitted a memorandum to the housing and urban affairs minister on Tuesday, 3 November. Forum chief convener Nalini Deka said the minister promised review meetings every three months, and the managing director of the Guwahati Jal Board was told to hold monthly monitoring meetings. Larsen & Toubro, the executing agency, has been directed to complete the project by March 2029.
The project has financial assistance from the New Development Bank, with the state government approving a Rs 1,367-crore loan. Only three of six proposed reservoirs have been built so far. Work is pending on the remaining reservoirs, the Brahmaputra intake facility, and the water treatment plant. Pipelines for household connections have not been laid in several areas.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Citizens’ Forum handed a memorandum to the housing minister, who responded with a promise of quarterly reviews, a step that sets a monitoring mechanism but does not itself deliver water. Residents of Rukminigaon spend Rs 300 to Rs 700 per household on private tankers because a well they relied on went dry and the South-East Guwahati project is stalled. Only three of six reservoirs are built. The key test is whether the quarterly reviews the minister ordered translate into actual pipeline-laying before March 2029, the new deadline handed to L&T.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.
