Sewerage treatment plant a distant dream

Rajiv Bhatia
Tribune News Service

Zirakpur, November 1
Despite massive urbanisation followed by a heavy influx of population, Zirakpur Municipal Council (MC) has failed to put in place a sewerage treatment plant. As a result, 2.5 million gallons (approx) a day of sewage generated from the urban conglomerate is being discharged in Sukhna Choe.

The MC has already spent lakhs of rupees to lay sewerage network across Zirakpur. But in absence of the sewerage treatment plant, the untreated sewage is polluting Sukhna Choe. Sources say that MC had failed to handover the land to Punjab Sewerage Board to set up the Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP).

Recently, the Punjab Pollution Control Board had asked the MC to set up a sewerage treatment plant and set the deadline for its construction till March 2011. The board had also asked the MC that if they failed to meet the deadline it would have to pay Rs 2 lakh bank guarantee for an extension.

“The sewerage laying work is being carried out by Punjab Sewerage Department and around 85 per cent work has been completed. However, the council failed to hand over the land to the sewerage board for setting up the STP and till now the water is being released into Sukhna Choe,” said an official of the sewerage department.

MC sources said a case regarding the land in Singhpura village for the plant was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The pollution control board had asked the MC to finalise another land to set up the plant till March 2011, sources added.

According to the sewerage board official, the work of sewerage laying was in progress and would be completed by year end. The department had started the installation work of the Main Pumping Station (MPS) at Singhpura village where the STP is likely to be set up. The official said the pumping station would only help to extract the untreated water and would further dispose it in Ghaggar.

Official sources informed that the cost of sewerage project under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) was ` 52.19 crore and a grant of ` 18 crore (approx) has been sanctioned for the sewerage treatment plant (STP) by the Central government and the state government under the Urban Infrastructure and development of Small and Medium Town (UIDSMT) scheme.