Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar to Inaugurate Second Phase of ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana’ at Nawada on December 15

Patna – Nawada town, under the second phase of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s avant-garde ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana’ (Ganga Water Supply Scheme), is all set to get potable water sourced from surplus floodwater of the river Ganga.

The Chief Minister will inaugurate the scheme at 11 AM in Nawada on December 15, 2023.

WRD & IPRD Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said the ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana’ is a pivotal component of CM’s ambitious ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Abhiyan’, that aims to provide surplus floodwater of the river Ganga to every household in water-scarce towns, including Rajgir, Gaya, Bodh Gaya, and Nawada, after its purification.

The Minister said earlier Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, under the first phase of ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana,’ had inaugurated the scheme on November 27 and 28 last year at Rajgir; Gaya, and Bodh Gaya respectively. Following the CM’s directive, the WRD, under the second phase of ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana,’ completed the scheme in Nawada within the stipulated deadline.

The Minister said the first phase of the scheme has been a massive success, as potable water drawn from surplus floodwater of the river Ganga is being supplied to 8,031 households in Rajgir; 6,000 in Bodh Gaya, and 75,000 in Gaya town since last one year. Additionally, this year during the Rajgir Malmas Mela around two crore tourists and more than 15 lakh pilgrims used the water of the river Ganga in the historical Pitrapaksha Mela Mahasangam in Gaya.

Furthermore, the ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana’ has ensured the recharge of the groundwater and also lessened its depletion.

“Its success under the grand vision of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is evident through the recognition it has received. The ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana’ was honored with the ‘CBIPI Award 2022’ in the ‘Best Implementation of Water Resources’ category by Central Water Commission, a Union Government Institution in March 2023,” he said.

The Minister said under the first phase of the ‘Ganga Jal Aapurti Yojana,’ an intake well-cum-pump house on the banks of the Ganga river was constructed at Maranchi village under Mokama block in Patna district. During the monsoon season, surplus floodwater from the Ganga, which earlier used to go to waste, is lifted through a special pipeline of 151-km length to supply water to parched cities in South Bihar, including Rajgir, Gaya, and Bodh Gaya.

Giving details of the functioning of the water supply scheme in Nawada, Jha said, Ganga water is lifted from the detention tank at Rajgir through two pumps. “Through a 700-mm diameter steel pipe, the water is transported to a newly constructed 36 MLD (million liters per day) capacity water purification plant near Paura village, 20 km away in Nawada. For the storage of purified water, an underground 36 million-liter tank and a pump house for water distribution have been constructed,” he said.

From here, water would be supplied to Nawada town through a 13-km long steel pipeline having a diameter of 600 to 300 mm. Four water tanks have been built by the Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (BUIDCO), and through them, water would be supplied to 13,965 households in 17 wards.

In addition to the residential areas, educational institutions, hospitals, hotels, government offices, etc., in the town will also receive the supply of processed Ganga water.