End to water shortage as supply from Sonia Vihar begins tomorrow

New Delhi, Aug 7 (UNI) In a significant milestone in the direction of fulfilling Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's dream of meeting water shortage in Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board is all set to release tomorrow the first installment of 65 MGD of water from the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant to the water-parched areas of the capital.

Sources in the Delhi Jal Board told UNI that 65 MGD of water from the plant would be released to areas in South and East Delhi that have been facing recurrent water shortages.

''Delhi Jal Board will be releasing water for the citizens of Delhi from the Sonia Vihar WTP on a trial basis from tomorrow.

Water supply would be released to large parts of South and East Delhi. Initially, around 65 MGD of water will be released and this quantity will be augmented in phases, once the system stabilises,''a DJB release said.

DJB will release around 65 MGD in the first phase and follow it up with further releases in a controlled manner in the coming months releasing a total of 140 MGD of additional water to Delhi.

As was done in the past when the Haiderpur and Bhagirathi WTPs were commissioned, DJB has worked out a programme of phased releases of water so that the stability of the transmission and peripheral lines could be carefully monitored.

An estimated 40 lakh people of Delhi stand to benefit from the additional water supply, the borad sources said.

The additional supply of water from the plant would benefit South Delhi areas like Okhla, Maharani Bagh, Friends Colony, Ashram, Jangpura, Sarai Kale Khan, Sriniwaspuri and Sarita Vihar, besides Vasant Kunj in South West Delhi ans East Delhi areas like Mayur Vihar, Preet Vihar, Gandhi Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mandawali, Vasundhara Enclave and New Ashok Nagar.

Also benefitted would be North East Delhi areas like Nand Nagri, Dilshad Colony, Seemapuri, Naveen Shahdara, New Seelampur, Shastri Park and Bhajanpura.

The release of water to the 140 MGD Sonia Vihar Plant had been negotiated after a hectic round of meetings, which Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had with the Union Minister of Water Resources and Power as well as the Chief Minister of UP. Even the Prime Minister had intervened with the UP Chief Minister on behalf of Delhi.

Besides this, there were numerous exchanges of communication and discussions at the official level spanning a period of more than one year.

As an outcome of these concerted efforts, a formula had been worked out on the basis of which the Government of UP released around 70 cusecs of water on May 21 followed by another 35 cusecs on June one and 70 cusecs on June 10. The last installment bringing the total quantity of water to 300 cusecs, was released for the plant on June 28.

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