Darjeeling: The urban development and municipal affairs department of the West Bengal government is undertaking a slew of measures to alleviate the water crisis situation in Darjeeling.
Many of these measures are being conducted by the Municipal Engineering Directorate (MED) under the Urban Development Department.
The first project involves the rejuvenation of the water supply to the twin Senchal lakes for which a budgetary outlay of Rs 30 crore has been earmarked.
The north and south lakes at Senchal have storage capacities of 20 million gallons and 13 million gallons respectively. This lake water subsequently goes through 22 hilly streams through pipelines for distribution in Darjeeling town.
The lake is located about 10 km from Darjeeling town at an altitude of over 8000 feet at the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary. The north lake was constructed in 1910 and the south lake in 1930.
The supply pipelines have not been renovated for decades leading to acute water shortages, especially during the tourist season. The project aims to renovate the pipelines and rejuvenate the lakes, which could potentially help overcome the water supply crisis.
The second project involves relaying all drinking water pipes in Darjeeling. Envisioned under the AMRUT scheme, this project has a budgetary outlay of Rs 205 crore.
The project also involves setting up 30 water tanks for the 32 wards in Darjeeling as well as 14 pump houses across the town. The work is currently in progress near Jorebunglow.
Two more drinking water projects for Darjeeling drawn up by MED include drawing up pump water from the confluence of the Teesta and the Rangeet rivers as well as from Srikhola situated 80 km from Darjeeling at an altitude of more than 8000 feet.
Lastly, the MED is also rejuvenating the Sumendu Lake in Mirik which is spread over 1.5 sq km. An amount of Rs 11 crore is being spent on dredging silts, building a protection wall on the damaged bank stretches and constructing a pathway surrounding the lake.
Another Rs 8.5 crore is being spent to set up sewage treatment plants to clean the lake water.
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