SHILLONG, Feb 12: PHE Minister Renikton L. Tongkhar on Friday said the financial requirement for completing the third phase of Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWSS) has been revised to Rs. 40-crore.
Tongkhar said the Centre has stopped the funding for the GSWSS Phase-III and the state government would now have to manage from its own resources to complete the project.
“Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma recently released Rs. 25-crore form the state plan for this project but the department needs another Rs. 40-crore to complete it,” he said.
The PHE Minister asserted that the department would complete the project when Meghalaya celebrates the golden jubilee of its attaining statehood.
On the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Tongkhar said the department has set a target of providing water to all households in 6,500 villages under the scheme by December 2022.
“The implementation of the project was affected due to the shortage of GI pipes. We expect the project to pick up pace by June with the Cabinet allowing the PHE to purchase pipes from any manufacturing unit.
“All these years, GI pipes were being procured directly from the NE Zone manufacturing unit at Byrnihat,” he said, adding that the unit has not been able to meet the demand for the implementation of JJM across the State.
The department is believed to have utilised more than Rs. 150-crore on this project and more than 75% work has been completed.
The GSWSS Phase-III is expected to mitigate the water woes being faced by the residents of Shillong.
The project was approved by the Centre in October 2008 at a cost of Rs 193.5-crore and the target for its completion was May 2011. The objective of this project was to create infrastructure for the supply of an additional 24 million litres of water to the projected population of Shillong Urban Agglomeration from 2011 to 2041.
