(From top) Labourers install a pipe along the Khandagiri-Pokhariput Road, The Telegraph report of April 11, 2011, highlighting water scarcity and a map of the piped-water supply project. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 15: The much-awaited Rs 6.13-crore piped-water supply project for Pokhariput, Bhima Tangi and adjoining areas will be ready by June.

The project, which includes two underground reservoirs at Gandamunda and Bhima Tangi, will put in place a water supply system especially dedicated to the area, where several housing projects have come up. The water will be supplied from the Mundali treatment plant.

The pipeline, which will ensure water supply to two underground reservoirs for the BDA colonies in Lingaraj Vihar, will pass under National Highway No. 5.

Sources in the Public Health Engineering Organisation said the present pipeline would ensure water supply from the Mundali source to the major underground reservoirs on the roadside. From these storage tanks, water will be supplied to other local underground reservoirs. From here, piped-water would reach the targeted areas.

“If we supply water from the main pipeline now, the water pressure will drop. We are going to end water relatedproblems in all places along the Khandagiri-Pokhariput Road, which include parts of Dharma Vihar, Jagamara, Badabari, Krishna Garden, Bhaktamadhunagar, Pokhariput village and Gandamunda. While Gandamunda reservoir will supply water to these areas through local tanks, the underground reservoirs at Bhima Tangi will supply water to Bhima Tangi Housing Board Colony, Sundarpada and nearby areas,’’ said Chitta Jena, executive engineer of the division I, Public Health Engineering Organisation.

“We could have completed the work by now, but the pipeline laying work is facing multiple problems. While the state forest department has requested the Public Health Engineering Organisation authorities to spare the trees planted along the Khandagiri-Pokhariput Road, it took a lot of time to obtain permission from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to dig trenches. Moreover, the utility corridor, through which the pipeline is being laid, belongs to a laterite belt of Pokhariput. As a result, cutting the soil in the area is taking a lot of time. Digging a trench under the railway line will also be a time-consuming process,’’ said an engineer of the Public Health Engineering Organisation.

“When the project was commissioned two years ago, stress was given on the underground reservoirs. Also, there was no plantation along the road at that time. But, as the trees have grown up in the area now, the forest department is not granting permission for tree felling. So, we will have to make the pipeline pass under the trees. It is a very difficult task to execute,’’ he said.

Pokhariput councillor Hrudayballabh Samantray and Bhima Tangi councillor Chhabi Jena said: “The project was delayed. But, we are now happy that at last, the people will get piped-water supply as there is a serious depletion of the water table because of lifting of groundwater in the area. Even a pond at Talabania and many wells at Sundarpada have dried up because of the depletion of the groundwater table.’’

Pitambar Parida, a resident of Ananta Vihar Phase II in Pokhariput, said: “It is unfortunate that the housing projects and the water supply projects are never developed simultaneously.

The development authority and the housing board must coordinate with the Public Health Engineering Organisation to ensure water supply after the housing projects are completed.”