KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 14: Residents living under Adityapur Municipal Corporation (AMC) in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district may have to wait over a year more for to get hassle-free drinking water supply at their households.
The mega drinking water project worth Rs 395 crores is being executed by a private agency, Jindal Water Infrastructure Ltd, since November 2018, six months after the AMC came into being. However, the ambitious project is hanging fire due to the forest clearance issue.
Though the executing agency has finished over 85 percent work even a year ago, it has not been successful in completing the project for 11.5 acres of land. It needs to set up a water treatment plant (WTP) near Domuhani in Sapra.
The strategic land at Sapra in Adityapur where the ATP is to be set up falls under the forest department. Hence the necessary forest clearance is required from the forest department.
AMC mayor, Binod Srivastav said most of the works, including pipe-laying work, water tower construction and even installation of water meters at the households are complete.
“The executing agency is waiting for the forest clearance for WTP construction. It will take one year for the construction of the WTP work which will begin when the forest clearance is made available,” said Srivastav while talking to Lagatar.
Divisional forest officer, Seraikela, Aditya Narayan said that the forest clearance is given in two phases.
“The forest clearance under Forest Conservation Act 1980 is given by the Central government only. The first phase of the forest clearance has already been given. The work towards providing the second phase of the forest clearance is likely to be made within the next two months time. The file regarding the second phase clearance is in the final stage,” said t DFO, Seraikela while talking to Lagatar.
Once the mega drinking water supply project is completed, over 50,000 households will be getting tap water. Presently only 8,000 households are getting tap water, remaining of them are managing their requirement either from the borewells or the Kharkai river that passes through the tiny township.
With the advent of summer, the underground water table has started depleting and the Kharkai river getting increasingly dry, leaving the residents to cope with the acute drinking water problem which is imminent.
