more-in The round-the-clock water supply scheme proposed as part of the Area Based Development (ABD) under the Smart City initiative will cover around 10,000 households and other establishments. In addition to the existing 6,000, an additional 4,000 connections to the uncovered houses have been proposed, sources say. The 24x7 water supply is among the major schemes being undertaken as part of the Smart City initiatives and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid stone for the ? 86 crore project last month. New reservoir Around 1,650 acres under ABD scheme covers the stretches from Siripuram to Beach Road, Peda Waltair, China Waltair and Visakhapatnam Eye Hospital to Beach Road. Feasibility studies for the projects have already been conducted. Sources say that besides using the existing network, water pipelines will be laid in an additional 46 km, covering all commercial and other establishments in the area. “To augment the water supply to the pipelines in additional areas, a new reservoir will come up in the place of the 2600 KL distribution reservoir near the Municipal Commissioner’s residence. Besides, the equipment at the pump houses will be replaced with the energy efficient ones,” they say. Non-revenue water With the unaccounted water remaining an issue, proposals have been made to bring the entire supply network under Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). “At present, 135 to 140 litres of water are being provided to the households against the mandated 150 litres per capita per day (LPCD). However, the loss due to non-revenue water stands between 30 to 35 %. The new system will enable monitoring of the pressure and supply to bring it down to 10 to 12 %,” says an engineering official. The Nagarjuna Construction Company is conducting a house-to-house survey to prepare the detailed project report. The project is expected to be ready by February 2020. However, it may be noted that attempts to ensure 24x7 water supply at Muralinagar, Daspalla Hills and Sagarnagar were either short-lived or did not take off at all.

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