KTR: Govt will ease drinking water woes

​Hyderabad: The drinking water improvement project to provide protected water supply to the villages situated beyond the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and within Outer Ring Road (ORR) will be completed by February, 2018.

Stating this in the State Assembly here on Friday, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao said the project had been taken up with an estimated cost of Rs 1,900 crore.

The works of the project had been going on at a brisk pace, the Minister said, adding that it would cover the peripheral areas with about Rs 1,700 crore loan availed from HUDCO and another Rs 200 crore of budgetary support from the State government.

The Minister, while admitting that there were certain constraints in the water supply and sewerage management in the city, said the government had achieved satisfactory improvement in providing drinking water supply to areas like Qutubullapur, ending more than a decade of tradition of protests before the HMWSSB office with empty pots.

The Minister said the drinking water improvement project had been taken up in the areas of municipalities and villages which were merged with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) area. He further said the works on Rachakonda reservoir would be taken up soon.

With regard to sewerage management, the Municipal Administration Minister said plans were afoot to avail loans from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu also assured to give Central assistance, Rama Rao added.