City sewerage plan readies for take-off

shimla:with the help of organisation of petroleum exporting countries (opec) funds for international development,1 the 10-million dollar shimla sewerage scheme has reached an advanced stage and is likely to be completed by december this year, much to the relief of people living in congested areas such as kusumpti, where the practice of manual lifting of night soil is still in vogue. disclosing this, an official spokesman said that the work involved laying of 179 km of pipelines of different diameters and construction of six sewage treatment plants at lalpani, north disposal, dhalli, summer hill, sanjauli and snowdon. over 80 per cent of the work has been completed at all these plants, he added. he said that of the 179 km of sewer lines proposed, work on 124 km had been completed till marchend this year, and the remaining pipes had been carried to the sites, where work was in progress. ‘‘over 130 km of pipes have been received and orders for the remaining pipes have been placed which are likely to reach shimla by may," he added. the spokesman said that besides the 10 million dollars being given by the organisation of petroleum exporting countries fund, the balance amount of about rs 15 crore was being funded by the state sector and out of the tenth finance commission funds. he denied allegations that the government had not been able to utilise the money from opec funds for the shimla sewerage scheme.