One of the initiatives under the Smart City Mission — the Surface Water Project — continues to move at a sluggish pace even five years after its commencement. Despite repeated assurances and multiple deadline extensions, the project still appears unlikely to get completed by the revised target date of December 31, which was already extended from August.

The Rs 400-crore project, launched in 2020, aims to shift the city’s drinking water supply from groundwater to surface water in order to conserve groundwater resources and provide a 24×7 canal-based supply of clean, treated water. However, progress on the ground tells a different story.

So far, 57 km of the planned 97 km of mild steel underground pipelines have been laid. Officials earlier claimed that several factors have delayed the pro

See Full Page