Water supply is only an intermittent service in most parts of the country. To improve this situation, a decision to provide continuous water service – for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year – with only occasional minor interruptions, was taken by all the states. Various urban local bodies (ULBs) have also taken up projects to improve water supply and repair worn-out pipeline infrastructure in their respective areas. One such project that aims to ensure safe and equitable water supply is the ambitious 24×7 water supply project in Pune, Maharashtra. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has taken up the project to provide sustainable water supply services to all citizens for the next 30 years. Along the same lines, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) undertook the Coimbatore 24×7 water supply project to upgrade the existing water supply system in the core areas.
Coimbatore 24×7 water supply project
The Coimbatore 24×7 water supply project is regarded as one of the flagship projects of the CCMC. The CCMC has undertaken the water supply distribution improvement project at a cost of Rs 29.72 billion, covering 60 wards in five zones that form part of the old city area of Coimbatore. The project was developed with financial help from the central government under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and the Smart Cities Mission.
The scope of work of the project involved the design, rehabilitation and implementation of water supply infrastructure (construction of service reservoirs, installation of meters and valves, etc.) and the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the distribution system. It also involved construction of 32 new reservoirs/pumping stations; construction of 117 km of feeder mains and 1,867 km of distribution system; and installation of supervisory control and data acquisition meters, flow meters, level and pressure transmitters, pressure data loggers, etc.; besides coverage of 150,000 existing connections with 100 per cent metering. Meanwhile, the key performance indicators of the project were reduction in the level of non-revenue water (NRW) to the current level of 30-35 per cent, improved water quality and better customer relationship management.
The contract for the project was awarded to Suez Projects Private Limited, with the consultancy being awarded to InfraEn India Private Limited (transaction adviser) and Fichtner Consultants India Private Limited (technical consultant for preparation of the detailed project report). It involved a study period of one year, construction period of four years and O&M period of 25 years (including the construction period).
One of the key elements of Coimbatore’s water supply project concession agreement is with regard to payment to the concessionaire. Unlike a typical concession agreement wherein the private contractor is responsible for the entire project cost resulting in high user charges, the CCMC bore around 20 per cent of the overall capital investment required for the project. Further, it was ensured that the concessionaire would be able to recover the entire cost during the O&M phase of the project. The annuity payments were subject to meeting progress targets and not through regulated tariff factoring in capex and efficiency curves.
Since its implementation, the city corporation has been able to save about 70 million litres of water by fixing more than 8,000 pipeline leakages.
Pune 24×7 water supply project
The project aims to introduce universal smart metering of water utilised in the city and levy water charges based on actual water consumption by consumers. The current cost of Pune’s 24×7 water supply project stands at about Rs 29 billion after revisions by the PMC’s Estimates Committee. The scope of work involves the construction of reservoirs and pumping stations, shifting of utilities, laying of 1,700 km of transmission and distribution pipelines, and installation of water meters under the Smart Meter National Programme, with the aim of conserving water and reducing water leakage at every step.
Under the smart metering component, the PMC will conduct a water audit and undertake systematic leakage detection and repairs to bring down the level of NRW in the distribution system to 15 per cent. Besides, the project also involves the installation of around 315,000 battery-operated water meters for domestic and non-domestic consumers followed by 10 years of O&M. The project aims to provide 750 litres of water per day to households. Further, it also involves the construction of 103 reservoirs. An additional component for laying a separate duct for optic fibre cables along with a water pipeline network was later added to the scope of work, which escalated the cost of the project to Rs 33 billion. The Maharashtra government had also included the construction of 63 elevated storage reservoirs and 19 ground storage reservoirs as part of the project under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for the year 2017-18.
The PMC has awarded contracts to two firms – Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Jain Irrigation Systems Limited – to carry out the work of laying water pipelines and installing meters at a cumulative cost of about Rs 23.07 billion. The scope of work involves the study, survey, investigation, assessment, design validation and revamping of the entire water supply network in the city including NRW reduction, supervisory control and data acquisition system deployment and O&M of the water treatment plant. L&T further subcontracted the installation of 275,000 iPERL meters to Sensus, a Xylem brand. To be provided over a period of three years, Sensus meters are expected to monitor, measure and manage activity across the network.
As of September 2020, about 10 per cent of the civil work has been completed that involves the laying of about 200 km (out of 1,700 km) of pipelines and installation of about 10,000 water meters. The work was earlier expected to be completed by 2021 but is behind schedule. Most of the water meters that have been installed are for bulk consumers, and commercial and industrial establishments. Other consumers still remain excluded as very few residences have a metering system in place. About 30 per cent of the water supplied to the city is metered, far below the target set under the project. Issues have been faced on several fronts. Key among these is the difficulty in acquiring permission to dig concrete roads to lay pipelines. Besides, there has been trouble with the old water meters installed in the city due to poor meter quality and delays in repair services.
The PMC is now expanding the project to cover 11 villages in the first phase and 23 villages in the future. The 11 newly merged villages are UruliDevachi, Phursungi, BavdhanBudruk, Lohegaon, Hadapsar, Mundhwa, Shivane, Dhayari, Undri, AmbegaonKhurda and AmbegaonBudruk. On March 9, 2020, it invited request for proposal bids for the selection of a project management consultant. Following this, seven firms – BLG Construction Services Private Limited, DRA Consultants Limited, L.N. Malviya Infra Project Private Limited, Shah Technical Consultants Private Limited, National Projects Construction Corporation Limited, Tata Consulting Engineers Limited and WAPCOS Limited – submitted their bids.
Conclusion
With the increasing population and rapid urbanisation, and the resultant stress on the country’s finite water resources, it has become imperative for city corporations to ensure 24×7 water supply along with improving water network management. The PMC and CCMC, with their unique approach to ensure round-the-clock water supply, have been able to achieve the desired result. Going forward, the 24×7 water supply model is expected to be an example for other cities willing to ensure uninterrupted water supply.