Delhi government announces Rs 2,500 crore water supply upgrade with ADB support

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced major water supply reforms backed by a Rs 2,500 crore ADB loan. The projects include underground reservoirs, smart metering, network rehabilitation and leakage reduction, with the government targeting 24x7 supply and lower non-revenue water

New Delhi: The Delhi government will initiate major improvements in the city’s water supply with the help of a Rs 2,500 crore loan extended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through the Union Finance Ministry, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference, Gupta said that a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) meeting has also approved the construction of two underground water reservoirs (UGRs) to boost water supply.

The DJB has also approved a project to install smart metres for realtime monitoring and to prevent water loss, she said. The project, funded with assistance from ADB, will cover the complete water supply chain — from the treatment plant and transmission network to distribution lines and household connections. “Their aim is to make Delhi’s water supply system more reliable, pressurised, smart and free from water losses. ADB will fund 70 per cent of the projects, while the remaining 30 per cent will be funded by the Delhi government.

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The DJB has approved Package-1, worth Rs 805 crore, and Package-2, worth Rs 935 crore, to improve water supply in the command area of the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant. “Around 43.96 sq km, nine UGR command areas and eight assembly constituencies would be brought under a modern water distribution system. The government’s aim was to create a water supply system that would deliver water 24×7 and every connection would be accounted for,” Gupta said in a statement.

The projects have set a target of bringing non-revenue water (NRW) down to 15 per cent. “Network rehabilitation, accurate metering, DMA-based monitoring and systematic leakage reduction would be implemented together to achieve this. Around 2.15 lakh household service connections would come under the project, with 100 per cent metering of consumer connections,” the chief minister added.

Under the project a total of 131 ‘District Metred Areas’ would be created to help track how much water entered the system, how much reached consumers and how much was lost along the way. This would make it easier to identify and control problems such as leakages and illegal connections. Chief Minister Gupta also said that an ‘Urban Challenge Fund’ has been proposed to take up other projects related to water supply. “The transformation of Delhi’s water supply system was not limited to Wazirabad.

A plan for an investment of Rs 11,427 crore in two zones covering West Delhi and Southwest Delhi had also been pushed forward. The initiative would benefit around 36.4 lakh people by improving water supply and strengthening nearly 3,830 km of network,” she added. Under the proposal, 25 per cent of the funding would come from the government of India, 25 per cent from the Delhi government and the remaining 50 per cent is proposed to be raised through loans, public-private partnership models.

Gupta said work has begun on projects worth around Rs 2,990 crore for setting up 28 new decentralised STPs, with work orders already issued. The CM also said water treatment plants with capacities of 50 MGD (million gallons per day) in Dwarka, 105 MGD in Chandrawal and 2 MGD in Bawana had been completed.

Gupta also said waterlogging in Delhi was a major challenge for her government, and that work was underway to tackle the problem. Delhi Water minister Parvesh Sahib Singh said that in a year and a half, the government has taken several steps, including a Water Master Plan, Drainage Master Plan, to improve water supply and the sewerage network in the city.