Shimla's drinking water supply scheme the costliest in India

Shimla, Nov 5 (UNI) The Shimla drinking water supply scheme is the costliest in the country with Rs 34 crore being spent annually to provide water to about 2.50 lakh people, Principal Irrigation and Health Public (IPH) Rajvant Sandhu said.

''Energy charges for pumping water from various water sources for the Shimla town alone stood at Rs 34 crore annually besides other expenses incurred on distributing water to the consumers,'' she told UNI here.

Ms Sandhu said the cost of providing drinking water to the consumers worked out to Rs 40 per kilo litre, while the state government was only charging a sum of Rs 3.50 per kilo litre from them.

Stressing the need to increase the water charges from the existing levels, she said these were not sufficient enough to meet the expenditure incurred on pumping water from various water sources.

The Secretary said except for the three towns of Solan, Shimla and Palampur, where the respective municipalities were providing water to the consumers, the IPH Department was providing drinking water to the rest of the state.

Laying to rest all speculations about privatising drinking water supply schemes in the state, she said the department was not even considering it as of now.

''No privatisation of drinking water supply schemes in the state is on the anvil,'' she asserted.

Ms Sandhu said it has only decided to hand over ten per cent ''sectoral storage'' facilities to the panchayats, which have also been asked to maintain water supply in their respective areas.

UNI AS HS VD BS1823