Bombay HC to monitor Aurangabad water supply project progress

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court will now be monitoring the progress of the upcoming Aurangabad water supply project.

While listening to a plea filed by affected residents, the two-member bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice SG Dighe said that the petition concerned would be taken up for hearing once in two weeks to monitor the progress of the new pipeline.

The court observed in an order dated April 20 that there is no dispute that in most of the Aurangabad localities, drinking water is supplied once in seven days and in some areas, once in eight days.

The bench said there is an acute shortage in water supply, mainly during summer, though there is adequate water storage in the Jayakwadi irrigation project due to the lack of a proper water distribution system.

While only the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was made a party in the case earlier, the court asked for making the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP), state urban development department, state forest department, and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), among others as.

To begin with, the court has directed the ministry of environment to approve the pump house construction at the Jayakwadi project, which also houses a bird sanctuary, before May 31.

Immediately the MJP would begin the pump house construction, the court said, asking the MJP to create a team of officers who would oversee the progress being made under the water supply project and record the daily progress details for production before the court as and when directed.

The Rs 1,680 crore new water pipeline scheme for Aurangabad has still not achieved the expected momentum despite one-third of the specified period being over.

Advocate Sambhaji Tope while representing the AMC before the court, said the work order for the new water supply project was issued in February 2021, and the expected time within which the project would be finished is about three years.

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