Bhopal: Rs 24 cr go ‘waste’ as water meter not networked

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): A sum of Rs 24 crore spent on the installation of water meters in the city is going down the drain as none of the meters have been made functional yet.

The civic body has so far installed around 80,000 water meters to supply Narmada Water in the city, however, it failed to provide connections.

Around 2 lakh Narmada Water supply connections have been provided under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) with an aim to build basic civil amenities in urban areas. Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) will launch a survey to take stock of the status of installed water meters in the city. Water meters were installed specially in new Bhopal in colonies along Hoshangabad Road. Superintending Engineer (Water supply) Udit Garg said, so far 80,000 water meters have been installed in the state but as there is no networking so currently they are not functional. More meters will be installed in the city under Amrit Yojana-2 which is likely to be kicked off next year, said Garg.

According to BMC, around Rs 1,000 crore has been spent in the last 10 years in the name of Narmada water supply. Under this, 2,500 to 3,000 kilometer long distribution pipeline has been laid, however, currently water from Kolar and not Narmada is being supplied. For this reason, whenever there is a fault in the feeder line of the Kolar project, a large part of the city goes dry.

The state capital, which has a population of about 23 lakh, only 70 per cent of the population is getting tapped water supply. And here too, 70 per cent water supply is being done from the Kolar project.

The Department of Public Health Engineering and the civic body has spent crores of rupees on Narmada water supply, however, in the last 10 years,  water supply could not reach even two lakh people of the city.