Balayya inaugurates overhead tanks

Hindupur (Anantapur): MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna has hurriedly inaugurated the Rs 194 crore drinking water scheme for the Hindupur town which is a panacea for the 3-decade-old drinking water problem.

As a token of the scheme inauguration, he declared open the newly built overhead tanks built for storage of drinking water from Gollapalle reservoir. Expecting election notification any time, he embarked on inauguration spree of water scheme, newly built vegetable market, Ambedkar Bhavan and a Shaadi Khana here on Thursday.

Speaking after inaugurating the water scheme, Balakrishna said that he is proud to inaugurate the water scheme to solve the three decades old drinking water problem faced for generations permanently. He stated that he lived up to fulfil his election promise of making the water scheme a reality. He said that TDP government has a history of keeping up its promises.

The MLA claimed that he had also released Rs 66 crore for boosting civic infrastructure and give a face-lift to the town by taking beautification measures. He hoped that the people will bring back TDP to govern the State with a thumping majority in the forthcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Municipal Chairperson R Lakshmi mentioned that the town had been experiencing acute drinking water problem for decades, but none could address it as the town is devoid of a drinking water supply source until the Krishna water came to Gollapalle reservoir, from where pipelines are being laid to Hindupur on a fast track basis. She said presently pipeline laying work is progressing fast and it would take a couple of months to complete the work.

In a couple of months, water would be supplied to every home in the town, she added. The town had been depending upon only groundwater and with bores drying down due to depletion of groundwater levels.

The town had been depending upon water transportation through tankers. In the past, efforts were made to bring PABR water to Hindupur but in vain as there was always poor supply to PABR dam from the Tungabhadra canal. Presently, out of the required 15 Million Litres a Day (MLD), only 5 MLD was available to meet the drinking water requirements of the town.

Municipal Commissioner Mallikarjun said that the town with a population of 1.5 lakh and 38 municipal wards has 17,000 tap connections. A target to increase 2,000 tap connections in 100 days has been fixed to ensure that every house in the town has a tap connection. The town requires 12 MLD of water every day but it is allotted 35 MLD of water per day from Gollapalle reservoir.