With a view to rejuvenating Budha Nullah into “Budha Dariya”, MLA Samrala Amrik Singh Dhillon, MLA Payal Lakhbir Singh Lakha and Ludhiana Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu on Sunday inaugurated Rs 9.80 crore project of releasing daily 200 cusecs fresh water.Presiding over the event near Neelon village, MLAs and Mayor said that this work is part of Punjab government's ambitious Rs 650-crore project to clean Budha Nullah by releasing canal water into the drain through Neelon Drain of Sirhind Canal.They said that under the project, the executive agency Water Resources department using sheet piling technology, has constructed an Escape regulator to carry 200 cusecs water from Sirhind Canal, four village road bridges, five field paths, two falls' repair and lining, repair of three Village road bridges and cleaning of Neelon river within a record timing of eight months. The project has been funded by Municipal Corporation Ludhiana and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).They said that Punjab Government is committed to revive the original Budha Dariya and restore its pristine glory and this is just a beginning of this gigantic task which would help to wipe out the toxic substances from the drain.
They said that the project has been initiated to check the free discharge of domestic waste into the Budha Nullah through its entire 14-km stretch cutting through municipal limits and to ensure that only treated water flows into the stream.They told that the work has already been commenced on two new Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for treating domestic waters of total capacity 285 MLD (Jamalpur 225 MLD and Balloke 60 MLD), rehabilitation of existing STPs with a treatment capacity of 418 MLD, two Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) for treatment of 6 MLD wastewater from two dairy complex in Tajpur and Haibowal, six intermediate pumping stations, laying of 10-km pipeline and 10 years of operation and maintenance of entire infrastructure under Rs 650-crore Budha Nullah rejuvenation project which would be over by December 2022.
Prominent among present on the occasion included Member secretary PPCB Karunesh Garg, SDM Samrala Vikramjeet Singh Panthey, Chief Engineer Drainage Barinder Pal Singh, Chief Engineer Canal Sanjeev Gupta, SE Drainage Circle Ferozpur Sher Singh, SE Sirhind Canal Jasinder Singh Bhandari, Ludhiana MC Councillors Dilraj Singh, Maharaj Singh Raji, Executive Engineers Harjot Singh Walia, Gurpreet Pal Singh Sandhu, SDO Rakesh Kumar, SDO Manish Batra and SDO Ravpreet Singh, besides several others.