Mada set to quench coal town thirst

Dhanbad: More than 10 lakh residents of Jharia and Katras, who have been facing water crisis due to faulty motor pumps and leaking pipelines for the past few months, could heave a sigh of relief with the Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada) preparing a fresh detailed project report (DPR) to improve supply from its Jamadoba-based treatment plants.

The DPR, being prepared with consultant Aqua Consultancy, includes complete overhaul of the two existing plants - the 12 million-gallon-per-day (mgpd) capacity treatment plant which supplies to Jharia and the 9mgpd plant which caters to Katras, constructing a new 9mgpd plant and fixing all the defunct motor pumps.

Indresh Shkla, the newly appointed technical member of Mada, said besides renovation of the treatment plants, all the motor pumps would be repaired. He added that out of the 10 non-functional pumps, two were likely to become operational from Wednesday.

Out of the 17 motor pumps at Jamadoba, five are installed at the intake well situated on the banks of river Damodar and 12 are located at the two water treatment plants. Currently, two out of the five pumps at the intake well and 8 pumps at the two plants are lying defunct.

Shukla said, "According to a 2016 plan, the total cost of building a new 9mgpd plant, renovating the old ones and laying new pipelines from Jamadoba to Jharia and Jamadoba to Putki, which are more than 40 years old and had developed leakages at several places, was around Rs 86 crore. The new DPR being prepared will add the extra expenditure that will be incurred to repair the motor pumps".

"The repairs of the existing pipelines and motors will be carried out through the MLA Local Area Development fund while the comprehensive renovation plan, which includes provision of constructing a new water treatment plant, is likely to be executed through funds collected by Mada through bazar fee," a Mada source added.