Guwahati: The JICA water supply project, covering North Guwahati and South Central Guwahati, targets a population of approximately 1,10,000 households.

Business Northeast spoke to Secretary, Guwahati Metropolitan Drinking Water and Sewerage Board ( Guwahati Jal Board) and Additional Project Director Guwahati Sewerage Board Panchami Choudhuri, who enlightened with many important aspects related to the water project.

For various reasons, including land issues and the pandemic, the project could not be implemented on time. At present there are eight reservoirs. The mother reservoir is in Ramsa Hills. The other reservoirs are in different parts of Guwahati like Amiya Nagar, Geetanagar, Lichubagan, Narakasur, etc.

From the Ramsa reservoir, water will be distributed to other reservoirs.
The Water Treatment Plant (WTP) of South Central Guwahati is located in Kharghuli. Similar provisions are in North Guwahati.

First there is an intake process. Water will be first drawn from river. Then it will be sent to the Water Treatment Plan. There are several phases in WTP, which purifies the water. After that, it goes to the reservoir. From the reservoir it goes to the pipelines through the distribution system.

Some of the important contractors for the projects were like Gammon, etc. In spite of being good contractors, as and when they entered the project their mobilization project was reduced due to their internal issues. So their performance was not as per target. Eventually, they were terminated. Getting a new contractor also delayed the project.

Under the intervention of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Cabinet Minister of Assam, Housing & Urban Affairs and Irrigation Ashok Singhal the work has started moving with full pace.

The loan closure date is December 2024, but the officers are asked to complete it by March 2024.

A trial run was started in July 2022. In December partial commissioning was done in 14 DMAs. Water supply started as the households applied for it. A project implementation unit is associated with JICA water supply, who is implemented under Guwahati Jal Board. As per Guwahati Jal Board Act eventually other water supply will be taken over by them.

The water supply bill will be metered, not fixed. The installation charges will be on the higher side as the equipment are very sophisticated. That is the reason, many people are not coming forward to take the connection.

At present, the connection is done for 4,500 households. But they have capacity to supply to 12,000 households. It’s not a free connection. One needs to apply. All payments are to be done online. For the benefit of consumers, Jal Sakhis under NULM are appointed to develop a bridge with Jal Board. These Jal Sakhis are from the same area where connections are taken.

The total fund allocated for the project was Rs 1426.67 crores.

Installation charges vary as per type of connection. If an individual household takes connection, then the charges will be less compared to a housing society having many individual societies.

Connection with Pressure Release Valve (PRV) the charge will be Rs.12,000.
Monthly charges will be as per consumption of people.

Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) is an internationally aided project meant for water supply in Guwahati. JICA is under government of Japan.
It is an EAP-Project (externally aided project). These are sourced through the central ministry. The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the Minister of Finance is providing the fund. 90 percent of the fund will be repaid by the DEA and 10 percent will be paid by the state government.

The project, launched in the year 2009 with the aim to provide clean potable water to the residents of Guwahati, is scheduled to be ready for full-commissioning by March 2024.

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