Efforts on to augment drinking water supply: Collector AS Dinesh Kumar

Ongole: Prakasam District collector AS Dinesh Kumar said on Saturday that there was no scarcity of drinking water, and informed that the repairs and widening of the roads in the district will be completed soon.

The Collector addressed the media along with Ongole Municipal Commissioner M Venkateswara Rao at the Collectorate here on Saturday and explained that they were taking measures to see that people do not face drinking water scarcity.

He said that the summer storage tanks have 0.10 tmcft of water which would be enough for supply of drinking water in Ongole town for the next 25 days. He said that the summer storage tanks in the district, including the Ramateertham reservoir will be filled with the water from the Nagarjuna Sagar project soon. He said that they have identified 160 habitations, where the people were experiencing drinking water scarcity, and they are being provided water to tankers in 1,436 trips on a daily basis. He said that complaints about drinking water to the command and control room have been reduced from an average 35 calls to 12 calls per day now.

The Collector said that a detailed project report (DPR) to provide drinking water to the Ongole citizens round-the-clock was submitted to the government and waiting for the budget approval. He said that the DPR was made taking the requirement for the next 30 years into consideration and with a demand of 150 litres per capita daily, and the file is at the finance department for clearance.

He said that the agency executing the underground cabling works was advised to hold the works for a month, as a drinking water pipeline was damaged recently.

The Collector informed that the government has taken up the repairs and widening of roads in Ongole town and all over Prakasam district. He said that they have taken up 85 works at a cost of Rs 156 crore.

He said that they were repairing 642 kilometres of roads, including 21 State highways and 64 district highways. He announced that the 28 works have already been completed, while they are planning to complete the remaining by the end of next month.

He said that 18 works pertaining to widening of roads to a stretch of 309 kilometres were taken up in the district at a cost of Rs 560 crore. These works will be completed by the end of June next year.