Bhubaneswar, Nov. 7: More than 20,000 residents of Old Town will get better water supply from Mula Padia reservoirs as the public health engineering organisation is laying a Rs 2.5-crore pipeline from Fire Station Square to Poonama Gate near Palaspalli.

The 4.5-km pipeline will supply nearly nine million litres of water per day to the two reservoirs at Mula Padia. The pipeline laying work, which started in August, will end by March 2013.

This will help the Old Town residents get water from the Mundali water treatment plant near the Naraj reservoir from where a pipeline is supplying water till Ghatikia. Another pipeline is supplying water from Ghatikia to Fire Station. The new pipeline between Fire Station and Capital Hospital will replace the old one that has become damaged at several places.

The Mula Padia reservoirs get supply mainly from the Daya river. However, a drop in the water table and decrease in the flow of water in the Daya river have taken a toll on the supply. So, this water-supply provision to the Mula Padia reservoirs near Lingaraj temple has been planned.

Executive engineer (division III) of the organisation Pradipta Kumar Swain said: “The work has taken a momentum and the pipeline laying job near the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology will be over by November 20. The pipeline work near the new airport terminal road, which starts from near Capital Hospital Square, will also be completed by January, and the entire project, by March.”

The road from Fire Station Square to Ekamra Square (near the meeting point of Sachivalaya Marg and road leading to Forest Park) is suffering from water leakage as the old pipeline lies underneath. “Apart from supplying water from the Naraj water to Mula Padia, the new pipeline will help in better maintenance of the road expansion project taken up by the public works department,” said Swain.

“We have a reservoir at Ghatikia, which gets the Naraj water and from there the pipeline will carry water to Mula Padia. A pipeline between Ghatikia and Fire Station is existing,” said P.S.N. Patro, assistant engineer of the organisation and in-charge of the Ghatikia water works.

Sujata Rath, a faculty member of a management education institute and resident of Old Town, said: “During summer, the water scarcity reaches its peak and almost everyone suffers in the locality. So, the new venture will mitigate the water issue.”

The pipeline from Fire Station will end near Palaspalli, where a small pumping station will link the water supply as it is linked to a pipeline underneath the railway track near the Poonama Gate level crossing.

While the authorities are laying pipelines to provide better water supply to the residents, the state government had earlier focussed on efforts to check wastage of drinking water in the city.

Taken together, these steps would be a big relief for the city during the summer months when the demand for water is the highest. The authorities had in May stated that nearly 100 million litres went waste everyday in the city.

Bhubaneswar is one of the few cities in the country where the installed supply capacity is almost double its requirement. Though it requires 150 to 160 million litres of water per day, the public health and engineering department provides 260 million litres. “Nearly 100 million litres of water gets wasted everyday owing to lack of awareness among the residents,” an official of the civic authority had said earlier.

At present, the city gets water from the Mahanadi, Daya and Kuakhai river systems. While 120 MLD is drawn from the Kuakhai, 20 MLD from the Daya and 60 MLD from the Mahanadi, the rest comes from underground sources and small streams.