To augment water supply position in Udhampur town, the government has prepared a Rs. 100 crore ‘Concept Paper’ and submitted to the Asian Development Bank for funding through ERA. The prospective project has been designed to meet the requirement of water supply till 2047 and source of water will be River Tawi at Binisung.Replying to a Question of legislator Pawan Kumar Gupta, the Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Ch Sham Lal said presently Udhampur town has a population of 128700 souls and requirement of drinking water is 37.98 LGPD against which the availability is 35 LGPD with 2.98 LGPD shortfall.Giving details about present status of water supply scenario in Udhampur district, the Minister informed that 16-LGPD potable water was added to the existing supply system for the main town and adjoining areas with completion of a UIDSSMT scheme costing Rs. 28.82 crore in the year 2007-08.
Similarly, the WSSs Jaganoo and Billan were taken up under NRDWP during 2006-07 at an estimated cost of Rs 2.34 crore and Rs 1.98 crore respectively adding that both the schemes stand financially completed.“Another WSS Darsoo is an on-going scheme under NRDWP at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.76 crore, against which an amount of Rs. 2.45 crore has been spent till Dec 2017. All the three schemes have gone cost overrun due to price escalation, the department will complete these from the available sources to ensure water supply to the people of these areas,” said the Minister.Replying to another part of the Question, the Minister informed that the Department has formulated a scheme under Jal Kranti Abhiyan at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.45 crore to ensure adequate water supply to Mansar village. Presently, the Mansar village is getting water supply from Ghar Krimchiu Scheme which is already over loaded due to dependency of 5 villages on the scheme, he added. He further informed that three schemes viz; WSS Samole, Garnaoi & Phalata have been formulated at an estimated cost of Rs. 9.82 crore which will be projected under NABARD Loan Assistance against the enhanced ceiling.Meanwhile, giving details about the approved Rural Water Supply Schemes under NABARD, the Minister said that 42 schemes at a total ceiling of Rs 42.11 crore have been taken up for execution in 20 districts of the State during the last three years. He said an amount of Rs 1.29 crore has been sanctioned for execution of these schemes during the same period.
Replying to a separate Question of Legislator Vikar Rasool, the Minister said that 21 Water Supply Schemes (WSS) are presently functional/partially functional in Banihal constituency to provide potable drinking water to the people. To further augment the supply scenario, more 37 new WSSs have been taken up in the area under different programmes at an estimated cost of Rs 65.65 crore, against which an amount of Rs.37.72 lakh has been released and spent during 2017-18. In addition to these, 15 filtration plants have also been taken up for construction, of which 3 have been made functional and others are at different stages, said the Minister.The Minister further informed that to augment the water supply to Banihal town, the department is going to tap a source from a Railway Tunnel. He said that for this Gravity Main GI pipes of 3300 m length have been laid against 3700 m and the balance 400 m at head site near tunnel is yet to be laid. “The Railway authorities are being pursued to allow tapping of water source from the tunnel,” said the Minister. Mian Altaf Ahmed, R.S. Pathania and G.M. Saroori raised supplementaries and highlighted the service deficit in PHE sector in their respective areas. They demanded up-gradation and further streamlining the supply scenario and speedy completion of on-going schemes.