This is an archive article published on September 6, 2021
Maharashtra: Pavana dam filled to the brim but Pimpri-Chinchwad’s water woes far from over
The inability of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to provide daily water supply to residents is primarily being attributed to the delay in implementation of the ambitious Rs 244-crore Amrut Water Supply Scheme.
The Amrut scheme, work on which began in 2016, has been delayed by three years. The new deadline for completion of the project is December 2021. (File)
Pavana dam, considered the lifeline of Pimpri-Chinchwad, on Sunday reached 100 per cent of its storage capacity. However, civic officials said, the industrial city with a population of 27 lakh residents will continue to get water supply on alternate days as it does not have the necessary system in place to ensure equitable distribution across the city.
The inability of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to provide daily water supply to residents is primarily being attributed to the delay in implementation of the ambitious Rs 244-crore Amrut Water Supply Scheme, besides delay in getting additional water from other projects. “Though the dam is full, we will continue with alternate-day water supply. We can consider the old supply system once our ongoing projects are completed,” said PCMC executive engineer Pravin Ladkat.
The Amrut scheme, work on which began in 2016, has been delayed by three years. The new deadline for completion of the project is December 2021.
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“We could not complete the project within the two-year deadline due to various reasons. The project has got extension twice. We lost at least 7-8 months due to Covid restrictions,” Ladkat said.
As on August-end, the project was 85 per cent complete.
“We aim to overhaul the supply system to ensure equitable distribution of water. This involves replacing old pipelines, stopping leakages and ending the practice of illegal water connections,” said Ladkat.
On reasons for the project falling behind, officials said there were various hurdles such as delay in acquiring land for setting up of water tanks, and delay on part of the civic body in setting up development plan (DP) roads. “We cannot lay water pipelines until the DP roads project is carried out,” Ladkat said.
Another problem the water supply department encountered was illegal water connections and reluctance of residents to connect their lines to that of PCMC. “Yet another problem was acquiring land for setting up of water tanks. This involved a lengthy process. Besides, seeking permission from petrol, oil and gas companies also took time. During monsoon, digging work is not allowed. And in the last two years, the work has been delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions,” an official said.
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For the project, the PCMC was supposed to get 33.33 per cent funds from Central government and 16.67 per cent from state government while contributing 50 per cent of the share from its own funds.
“Any increase in water quota will depend on Bhama Askhed and Andra dam project works. Once the pipeline laying work from these dams is completed, Pimpri-Chinchwad can expect increase in their quota of water,” said Ladkat.
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Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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