Water reservoirs, pumping stns to boost supply in city

Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim and senior Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials on Saturday made a whirlwind tour of the city, inaugurating, laying foundation stones, or visiting sites for underground water reservoirs and booster pumping stations.These reservoir-cum booster pumping stations are being constructed to augment water supply in scarcity zones and provide safe drinking water to citizens who now depend on groundwater.Residents in parts of Beleghata and CIT Road will receive more water, as a booster pumping station was inaugurated on Saturday at the intersection of Beleghata Main Road and CIT More. Rs 4.3 crore was sanctioned for the booster pumping station, which has a capacity to store 18 lakh litres of water per day. According to a KMC water supply department official, residents of Beleghata Main Road (parts) and CIT Road (parts) will benefit once the booster pumping station connects to the Tallah water tank and starts operation.Residents of VIP Nagar, Hastings Colony, Netajinagar Colony, and Jagarani, located off Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, will be supplied pure drinking water once an underground water reservoir-cum booster pumping station comes up in VIP Nagar. The foundation stone was laid on Saturday. The KMC sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the booster pumping station, which will draw water from the Dhapa water treatment plant. Once constructed, the underground water reservoir will have a capacity to store 18 lakh litres of potable water.Hakim also laid the foundation stone of an underground water reservoir-cum water booster pumping station at Sonali Park in the Bansdroni area. The reservoir, with a capacity to store 13.62 lakh litres of water, will not only augment supply in the water scarcity zones but also supply safe drinking water to residents of Sonali Park and Dinesh Nagar, who now depend on groundwater for daily use. The booster pumping station, to be constructed in 1 year, will receive water from the treatment plant under construction at Dhalai Bridge.The civic officials on Saturday inspected two sites at Dover Lane and Dover Terrace for the construction of two separate water booster pumping stations. "We identified two small plots where we will need to construct two underground reservoirs and booster pumping stations. Currently, residents of these neighbourhoods are suffering from water shortages as the pressure of water, which is being supplied all the way from Tallah, gets low. We decided to connect these water booster pumping stations to the Garden Reach water treatment plant so that the water crisis in these localities gets resolved," said a KMC official.