VIJAYAWADA: With an objective to supply drinking water supply to areas prone to water scarcity during next summer, the State government has chalked out an action plan. From finishing the pending water supply projects to filling the summer storage tanks, the officials have expedited all works and are targeting to complete them in the next three months.
While the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department has set a target to complete water supply works worth Rs 1,329 crore, which are being undertaken through the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), NABARD and other programmes, works worth only Rs 248 crore were completed by the end of November.
“We are taking measures for the construction of water harvesting structures and completion of the new and old supply schemes by March next year,” the officials said. According to the officials, a total of 347 mandals were hit by a drought across the State during the early Kharif-2018. Out of them, 325 mandals were ‘severely hit’, while 22 were ‘moderately hit’ and the department had laid special focus on these areas.
Further, the department is in the process of ensuring that over 1,600 summer storage tanks are filled in the next four months. Of them, close to 1,300 tanks are filled to a minimum of 50 per cent. The remaining will be filled in the next three months. “Out of the 103 clusters in 17 packages, work has begun in 54 clusters (eight packages). Tenders for the remaining nine packages have also been invited,” another official said.
The department is also working towards completing the Water Grid project at the earliest. While the bidding process for the works in Krishna, West Godavari, Prakasam and Visakhapatnam districts have been concluded, tenders have been issued for the works in Guntur, Vizianagaram, Nellore, Anantapur, Kurnool and Kadapa districts.
“We aim to finish the intra-village distribution network works, augmentation of sources such as Single Village Scheme and individual household connections, by March,” the officials added.