To end the drinking water woes in Shimla, State Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has prepared a futuristic drinking water scheme for the city to provide 24×7 water supply to the households.
The Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared and the entire project will cost `515 crore and has been sent to the Union Urban Development ministry for approval and funding. IPH Minister Ravinder Singh Ravi detailed that this water scheme has been prepared keeping in mind the population of the city in the year 2045 and is likely to get clearance soon from the Cabinet.
Ravi claimed that survey conducted by the department cleared that the population of Shimla in 2045 will be around 7 lakh and it has been felt that with rapidly increasing pressure of the population in the city, a futuristic plan is needed.
The water will be lifted from River Sutlej and Kol dam and other sources for the scheme. Currently, Shimla has a population of around 1.72 lakh and around 75,000 is the floating population and IPH department supplies around 45 MLD water.
Drinking water is the major problem faced by the people of the city. During summer and winter when the rivers have less water or are frozen, water supply gets disrupted and some time department also introduced rationing of drinking water in the city.
