By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Mission Bhagiratha — Telangana government’s ambitious project to provide piped drinking water to every household — has crossed several barriers and is now closer to becoming a reality. The project, when completed, is likely to be a major socio-economic game-changer for a populace that is currently facing se eral issues in this regard, such as fluoride-contaminated water, availability of potable water only at far-off areas and dependence on water tankers.

The biggest challenge while implementing the project, experts say, was laying pipelines to the length of a whopping 50,000 km — almost four times the distance between India and the US. A group of companies with technological expertise in this area has come forward to make the government’s dream a reality, with Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL), being a prominent player.

MEIL has been assigned 50 per cent of the pipe-laying works (25,000 km), of which it has already laid pipelines to the length of 20,000 km. The company is also in charge of the operation and maintenance of the project for the next 10 years.

“We have already created a record by delivering projects ahead of the schedule,” said a MEIL spokesperson. “The project was completed at record pace in Gajwel constituency, headed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The project has been in use for the last one year already. The citizens of Gajwel constituency have already acknowledged the quality of works executed by MEIL. We have over 25 years of experience in successfully implementing drinking water schemes in rural and urban areas of India and Africa. We have achieved the leading position in executing projects on EPC basis. MEIL already has the distinction of successfully executing Water Grid packages in Gujarat five years ago,” he said.

“After the formation of Telangana, its Chief Minister took up Mission Bhagiratha as a prestigious task. MEIL has bagged multiple packages in this scheme, which were on an international bidding process. Even though other infra companies are executing the project’s works, MEIL is the only organisation to finish its targets on time. MEIL has its own manufacturing units to produce pipes required for the project,” claimed the MEIL spokesperson.

As of February 2018, 95 per cent of the works have been completed in some of the water grid projects entrusted to MEIL, such as Nizamabad-Singanoor Water Grid, Warangal Paleru Water Grid, SRSP Adilabad Water Grid, and the AKBR segment of Nalgonda Water Grid. All these projects are scheduled to be fully commissioned later this year. In the future, these projects will cater to the drinking water needs of about 45 lakh people of more than 5,000 habitations in both urban and rural areas of the state.