GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday took stock of progress of ongoing construction work of Greater Guwahati Water Supply Project being implemented by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and directed the agency to commission first phase of the project before October this year.
Chief Minister Sonowal during his visit to the project site at Ramsa Hills and Kharghuli asked the agency to complete remaining portion of the project on a war footing. Minister for Guwahati Development Department, Siddhartha Bhattacharjya accompanied the Chief Minister during the visit.
The Chief Minister while visiting Ramsa Hills reviewed the progress of construction of the largest water reservoir of the project, which is 81 m in length and 61 m in width with storage capacity of 1.4 crore liter of water. He also visited Intake Point of the project which is being constructed at Kharghuli on the bank of river Brahmaputra to draw water from the river.
Sonowal while interacting with officials of GDD and JICA stressed on the need for maintaining uninterrupted water supply to the project during winter. He advised concerned authorities to look into the matter and even examine the need for dredging the Brahmaputra River at the Intake Point to maintain flow of water. He also asked them to take suggestions of experts from IIT, Guwahati, if required on the matter. Sonowal also hoped full commissioning of this project would help in solving the long standing water shortage problem of the city residents.