Indirapuram to get water only 2 hours a day due to Delhi-Meerut Expressway

The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) on Saturday said that water supply to Indirapuram will be halved due to ongoing work for the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) project by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). GDA officials said water supply to Indirapuram will be made available only for two hours each day – from 7am to 9am – till August 15.

As of now, water is supplied in the area for only four hours – two in morning and two evening – per day.

The GDA, in a statement on Saturday, said the demand will be met with the help of water tankers to the area.

The project, which costs Rs.174 crore and is part of the DME project, involves shifting and laying of new Ganga water pipelines, NHAI officials said.

“At present, we have two water pipelines, of 12.5km each on either side of the NH-9, which carry water from the Upper Ganga Canal to water treatment plants at Pratap Vihar, from where it is routed to Indirapuram. One of these pipelines is on one side of Vijay Nagar while the other is running alongside the highway on the other side. The work for shifting of a 3km stretch of the existing 12km-long line on Vijay Nagar side is almost complete. A stretch of about 1.5km of the other line also needs to be shifted out of the way for the new stretch of the DME,” said RP Singh, project director (NHAI).

“The shifting of the 1.5km stretch is also complete and its connection with the other line near Dundahera is going on. Hence, water supply to Indirapuram from the Pratap Vihar plant will be short but it will not be completely shutdown. Further, on the same side, we are laying a new 12.5km pipeline which will be an additional line, half of which has been laid while the work for the remaining portion is pending,” Singh added.

GDA secretary SK Rai and executive engineer RP Singh were not available for comments.

The residents’ association said the highrises will be able to compensate for the reduced water supply with the help of groundwater.

“The supply of Ganga water is in mornings and evenings on a daily basis. Most of the highrises already have submersibles and will use them in case of short supplies. The authority must provide tankers or additional supplies during the low supply days,” said Alok Kumar, president of federation of the associations of apartment owners (Indirapuram).