Hooghly-Chinsurah & Bansberia municipal towns, located at the extreme northwestern part of Kolkata Metropolitan Area, is served with ground water source. The quality as well as quantity of which is inadequate.
Triveni Sangam, one of the holiest shrines in India, is located within Bansberia Municipal Town and lakhs of people take holy dip in Triveni Sangam every year. It is also famous for a number of very important industrial institutions. Hooghly-Chinsurah, on the other hand, is one of the oldest municipal towns within West Bengal. The population in both the municipal town is increasing at a rapid pace and it is expected that industrial plants, manufacturing units and commercial establishments will be further installed in this area.
Taking all these into consideration and as per the Govt. policy, it has been decided to provide treated surface water in the two municipal towns, switching over from the present ground water source to surface water.
Capacity
15 MGD Surface Water Treatment Plant
Service Area
Bansberia & Hooghly-Chinsurah occupies the north-western extremity of KMA. The municipalities and adjacent to each other and are both on the west bank of river Hooghly. Bansberia is the northern-most municipality within KMA and Hooghly-Chinsurah is immediately to the south of it. The project boundary comprises of river Hooghly to its east, non-municipal urban area to the west, Mogra (outside KMA) to its north and Chandannagar Municipal Corporation on its south.
Population to be Served
The area of Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality is 17.2 sq.km. and while that of Bansberia is 9.04 sq.km. 1991 Census population are 151512 and 94624 respectively. Considering 15 years design period, 2010 has been considered the designed year for the project under consideration and designed population projected for Hooghly-Chinsurah & Bansberia for the year 2020 have been calculated to be 238177 & 153670 respectively.
Existing Facilities
Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) was subdivided into the following five water service districts for the purpose of planning & providing water supply facilities. These are as follows :
Kolkata Service District
Gardenreach Service District
Howrah Service District
Palta Service District
Serampore Service District.
This project area, located on the Northern Proximity of Serampore service district, has not been included within the command area of Serampore Water Treatment Plant mainly because, it won't be a economically viable scheme. It was earlier contemplated to serve this area through ground water source. Thus the project area is deriving supply through age old distribution grid and dependent upon tubewel source.
Studies have indicated that from qualitative and quantitative point of view, ground water in KMA, north of Chandannagar, is rather poor due to the presence of iron content beyond permissible limit, hardness and total dissolved solids and should not be depended upon in future. Following an overview of long term strategy for water supply services, the existing system of ground water sources cannot cope up with the present rise in demand. Besides indiscriminate withdrawal of ground water has caused gradual lowering of the piezometric surface and in acute cases may even cause land subsidence.
Need of the Project
Installation of a surface water based project to serve the Hooghly-Chinsurah and Bansberia Municipal area has therefore been considered imperative. River Hooghly, a perennial source of surface water, is flowing adjoining the municipal boundary and helps to install a surface water based project.
15 MGD (68 MLD) Water Treatment Plant alongwith Raw Water and Clear Water Pumping Station with primary distribution grid has therefore been envisaged and has been proposed to be accommodated in the area where a Surface Water Treatment Plant, river Hooghly, as its source, with a capacity of 0.6 MGD, installed 80 year back for Hooghly-Chinsurah. Discussion has been made with the Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality and they have agreed to provide the entire land of the existing TreatmentPlant for implementation of the proposed project. It may be mentioned that although the existing 0.6 MGD Treatment Plant served Hooghly and Chinsurah municipal area, but is located within Bansberia Municipality. However, after commissioning of the proposed project, both the municipal towns will be benefited with treated water of the Hooghly River water source.
Salient Features of the Project
The project envisages a 15 MGD (68 MLD) Treatment Plant to be accommodated in the area of the existing Head Works and latest technology available for water purification will be utilized to ensure accommodation of the 15 MGD capacity Plant within the available space.
The scheme also includes 30 M long RCC Intake Jetty, one Raw Water Pumping Station on the bank of river Hooghly, 2 nos. of 600 mm dia 400 M long Raw Water Rising Main before the water reaches the Treatment Plant. The treated water will then be accommodated in a Clear Water Reservoir of 3 Million Gallon capacity from which it will follow a combine primary main of 1000 mm dia for a distance of 1.5 km and will then bifurcating into two trunk mains - 8.27 km for Hooghly-Chinsurah and 7 km for Bansberia Municipal area respectively. The existing distribution grid of the municipality will be integrated with the proposed primary grid as stated above.
The existing overhead reservoirs - 7 under Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality and 3 under Bansberia Municipality will serve as the Zone Centres for equitable distribution of water within municipal limit.
The per capita supply has been adopted as 135 litres/capita/day. In addition, industrial & institutional demand, as per necessity, have also been considered. For fire fighting demand, recommendation of CPHEEO Manual, has been followed.
Appropriate level of operation & maintenance with proper pricing structure has been suggested. It has also been suggested to levy direct water charges as per the standard water pricing policy of the State. The cost of the project stands at Rs. 51 crore. The project is included within 'JNNURM' Schemes and have been targeted for completion by next 3 years.
