PUNE: One more attempt to get 24 X 7 water supply scheme on the track fell through on Tuesday, when the standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) rejected  a Rs 37 crore  proposal submitted by the Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the scheme and instead decided to scout for an agency ready to take up the scheme on a DBOT ( Design, Build, Operate and Transfer) basis.

The scheme, first envisaged by former municipal commissioner Praveen Singh Pardeshi in 2008, was designed to address the issue of heavy water leakages, estimated to be around 30 to 40 per cent of city’s water supply.

The PMC is undergoing a severe crash crunch  and most standing committee members felt it would be not advisable to spend Rs 37 crore on a DPR  if the work on it could not be begun before 2012.   The PMC hopes it would be able to push through the project in the second stage of the JNNURM, which may commence in 2012.

In a DBOT project, the agency would not only spend its own money preparing the DPR but also be responsible to get the project cleared from the state and central government, standing committee chairman Arvind Shinde said.

The scheme involved replacing the entire existing water supply network  in the city in the hope that once the leakages were plugged there would be plenty of water for the city to get a 24-hour supply. 

The scheme,  projected as the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) big contribution to the city however, landed in controversy for its projected cost of around Rs 1800 crore and the apprehensions that water supply to every house would be metered. After letting it remain dormant for some time, the NCP has once again tried to pull it out, only to be opposed by the Congress, with whom it now shares power at the PMC.

CAUSE FOR DELAY

The PMC is currently facing a cash crunch. hopes it would be able to push through the project in the second stage of the JNNURM, which may commence in 2012.