Filtered water supply scheme inaugurated at Panihati

The state urban development minister Firhad Hakim on Saturday inaugurated a filtered water supply scheme at Panihati and its neighbourhood.

The project has been funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru national Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).

The project will benefit over 6 lakh people in the area. The estimated cost of the project will be around Rs 24,602 lakh. The Centre and the state governments have given Rs 86,1081 lakhs each while Kolkata Metropolitan  Development Authority (KMDA) and  Panihati Municipality have given Rs 6,150 lakh and Rs 1,230 lakh for the project respectively.

The project will supply 13 million gallon of filtered water per day. The underground reservoir has the storing capacity of 20 million gallons.

Water will be stored from river Hooghly and will be purified by the modern plate settler method.

Mr Hakim said that providing filtered water to the people was the top most priority of the state government. He added that earlier deep tube-wells were constructed to provide filtered water to the area but the people faced trouble when they became defunct. The project will solve a long standing demand of the residents. He mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had made it clear to the department that providing filtered water to the residents was the main thrust of the department.

It was the British who had constructed a lifting station at Palta and began supplying water to Kolkata in 1861. When Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee told the chairmen of the Municipalities situated along the river Hooghly to construct lifting stations and supply filtered water to meet the growing needs of the people.