Bihar plans mega water lift project to supply Ganga water for drinking purpose to Gaya, Rajgir, Nawada towns

PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Tuesday asked the water resources department (WRD) officials to expedite work on the Ganga Water Lift Project so that safe drinking water could be supplied to the water-alarmed towns like Gaya, Rajgir and Nawada, located in southern part of the state.
Under the multi-crore project, the state government has planned to lift water from Ganga river near Hathidah in Patna district and supply it to Gaya, Rajgir and Nawada towns through pipeline.The Ganga water will be thoroughly processed for drinking purpose within the supply chain system before going to the consumers' tap.
“Our main purpose is to provide safe drinking water to people of the localities to be covered under the project. Level of groundwater has already gone down in Rajgir and Gaya towns. The project should be commenced as early as possible so that people of Gaya, Rajgir and Nawada do not face more difficulty for safe drinking water,” Nitish told the officials after viewing a detailed presentation on the project at ‘Sankalp’ hall in the CM residence here.
Earlier, the WRD secretary Sanjeev Hans made a detailed presentation about the scheme before the CM and state’s top officials including chief secretary Deepak Kumar and the development commissioner Arun Kumar Singh. Hans also showed the route of pipelines and description of water storage points through a film to the CM and top officials.
Hans also informed the CM that a team of WRD officials recently visited states like Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh and conducted survey of some big drinking water projects there.
As per the presentation, the total length of pipeline which will supply Ganga waters to three towns would be 190.90 km. The Ganga water would be lifted near Hathidah and the pipeline will cross alongside the national highways and state highways. The main pipeline will run from Hathidah to Giriyak via Sarmera and Barbigha. From Giriyak, one pipeline will go to Rajgir, while another to Nawada. Third pipeline will go to Manpur (near Gaya) via Vanganga, Tapovan and Jethia.
“A major water storage point will be constructed near Manpur. Similar storage point will be constructed for other towns too. The project will be completed in three phases,” Hans said in his presentation.
State's agriculture minister and Gaya MLA Prem Kumar and the WRD minister Sanjay Jha also were present on the occasion.