PANAJI: To further augment the availability of water at the Opa water works, the ministry of water resources has proposed a plan to create facility to draw water from the Mhadei River at Ganjem for an estimated cost of Rs 107 crore.Talking about the development, minister for water resources Vinod Palyekar told TOI that he had met chief minister Manohar Parriakar earlier to seek additional funds for completion of work of ongoing projects as well as to launch new ones."There are many ongoing projects for which we have asked for funds. Apart from that, there is also a proposal for major projects at Ganjem and Divar which will cost around Rs100-150Cr and constructions of several new bandharas," Palyekar said.Although they could not confirm the proposal for any new project at Divar, senior officials at the department of water resources told TOI that the proposal for Ganjem is ready and to be shared with other departments."The Ganjem project has been proposed to augment the supply of raw water at the Opa water works by drawing water from the Mhadei River. Under the current proposal, five centrifugal pumps will be installed to discharge 1,248 liters per second (LPS) of water at Opa. Since the 8 kilometer distance is passing through an uneven topography, consisting of mountains as well, we need to use the pumps to pull the water for a distance of 4,620m whereas the water will move with the gravitational pull for 3,942m," a senior official from the water resources department shared, adding that the move will directly benefit the water supply in Ponda and Panaji.Palyekar had earlier met union minister of state for water resources, Dr Sanjeev Balyan in New Delhi to discuss various schemes of central government which can be implemented in Goa.

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