GUNTUR: Residents of the villages merged with the Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) are still awaiting for sufficient drinking water from the past one decade. In 2010, 10 villages were merged with GMC, including Gorantla, Reddypalem, Pedapalakaluru, Nallapadu, Chowdavaram, Naidupet, Potturu, Ankireddypalem, Etukuru, Budampadu villages.
Since then, the civic body has been providing drinking water through water tankers. Each day, over 138 water tankers visit these villages, which is far from sufficient.In 2019, under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme, a drinking water project was initiated at Gorantla with Rs 33 crore.
The 53MLD project includes a 10 km pipeline and two reservoirs — one with 600KL capacity and another with 4,200 KL capacity. Due to various reasons, including delay in getting required permissions, unavailability of suitable land, the project got delayed.
On the other hand, the construction works which started earlier, were halted due to the Covid pandemic.
However, with the formation of a new council and the arrival of a new commissioner, the works have gained pace. Commissioner Nishant Kumar inspected the progress of works recently and said that 80 per cent of works were completed and the remaining will be completed at the earliest.
He also directed the officials concerned to clear all pending bills to the people, who lost their houses for laying the pipelines. Over 2.34 lakh people will get sufficient drinking water after the completion of the project.Meanwhile, locals have urged the GMC to complete the project at the earliest.