Aurangabad: Water starved residents of Firdos garden and nearby localities can heave a sigh of relief as the municipal body has finally initiated the process of laying a new pipeline in the area. The municipal administration has prepared a proposal of Rs 29.45 lakh for laying 100 and 150mm thick pipelines that will supply water to all the residents whose tap connections were snapped recently.The proposal will be placed before the standing committee meeting that is scheduled on Tuesday and if approved, the authorities would start executing the work.In a drive against illegal consumers held in the first week of December last year, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had snapped 375 water connections of consumers drawing water illegally from the pipeline that is meant for filling the elevated storage reservoir.There is no network of internal pipelines and thus the consumers were drawing water from the 200mm pipeline, which was affecting water supply to other localities. However, Chahel said that the line passing through the locality is not meant for the consumers.While disconnecting the line, Sartaj Singh Chahel executive engineer in the civic body said that the consumers were illegally drawing water from the main supply line which is designed for filling Padegaon elevated storage reservoir (ESR). "The illegal connections have dropped water pressure in the supply line and thus the civic authorities could not fill the ESR which is aggravating the water scarcity," he said. But, highlighting the hardships faced by residents, a group of women from Firdos Garden and Gulmohar Colony had recently urged the civic body to allow them to take water from the 200mm line. "We have no other option to fetch water. The civic body should legalise the existing connections," they had urged the municipal authorities.But the civic authorities turned down the request and instead removed all the illegal connections. Now, the authorities are planning to set up special camp to authorise water connections to the affected residents. About half of the water connections in the city are illegal. Chahel said that 1.26 lakh connections are registered with the civic body while they pegged the number of illegal consumers to 1.24 lakh. "Most of these illegal consumers have broken main pipelines and availed the connections that have been leading to seepage of drainage water into the drinking water line. Apart from this, the illegal water consumers are causing huge financial losses to the civic body," Chahel opined.

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