CM chairs review meet on water augmentation projects
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister of Delhi and Chairman Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Arvind Kejriwal chaired a review meeting on water augmentation projects with the DJB on Friday at the Delhi Secretariat.
The DJB submitted an extensive action plan for executing the projects for water augmentation.
The meeting was also attended by Minister Urban Development ( UD) Satyendar Jain, Vice-Chairman of DJB Dinesh Mohaniya, Chief Secretary of Delhi Vijay Dev and MLAs of the area where these projects are to be executed.
The DJB presented the timelines for the completion of the projects and the amount of water to be augmented with the completion of these projects.
DJB was asked by the Chief Minister to squeeze the deadlines in some of the projects which were presented by the DJB to be completed after March 31.
The Chief Minister said all these projects have to be completed and whatever hurdles come in the way has to be cleared.
He told the Delhi Jal Board that the government would back them fully in case of any hurdles.
"Our aim is that the people of Delhi should not face the problem of water in the coming summer season. We must execute all these projects of water augmentation before summer sets in,'' said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Secretary also echoed the same sentiments and said that these projects should be executed with speed.
The Chief Minister and other top brass of the Delhi Government discussed the minute details of the projects and cleared the administrative hurdles during the meeting.
The Chief Engineers of the respective areas (South, West, East and Central & North) have been made accountable for the projects in their areas and they would be directly asked for updates of projects in their area.
The four projects which were reviewed on Friday were water extraction from six-locations between Palla and Okhla, extraction of water from freshwater pockets identified in Dwarka, restarting the closed Ranney Wells and Borewells and additional bores in areas with high water table.
The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has identified six-locations on the Yamuna flood plain between Palla and Okhla with a potential of 383 MLD water.
The DJB is already extracting some water from one or two of the locations. However, most of the potential is untapped. It has been decided that the extraction should be done for the full potential of 383 MLD.
