Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) is planning to expand its water treatment capacity by 100 million litres per day in effort to match the city’s growing demand for drinking water (MLD).
The RMC’s standing committee also approved a proposal to purchase 900 metric tonnes (MT) of liquid PAC-10 and 16 MT of PAC-30 powder from Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) for an estimated price of Rs1.14 crore during the fiscal year 2022-23.
The PAC-10 and PAC-30 liquid powders are used to treat drinking water. These chemical compounds act as a coagulant, removing anionic colloidal impurities while also speeding up the settling of suspended materials.
The proposed purchase is roughly double the amount used by the seven current water therapy crops (WTPs).
As of February 2022, the current WTPs use 416.9 MT of PAC-10, according to the proposal, which also mentions that GACL, a state-owned enterprise with headquarters in Vadodara, has proposed to acquire these chemical compounds immediately from it.
“We are likely to commission a 50 MLD WTP in Raiyadhar by May-end. Another WTP of the same capacity at GETCO Chowkadi is likely to become operational by December. These two new WTPs will make treated water available in areas which have been brought under the jurisdiction of the RMC in recent years. To treat this additional amount of water, we need more PAC-10 hence the increase in estimates,” Mahendra Kamaliya, metropolis engineer (waterworks) of the RMC said.
The new Raiyadhar WTP will cost Rs 29 crore to build, while the one at GETCO Chowkadi in Vavdi space will cost Rs 42 crore.
The Raiyadhar WTP distributes drinking water to economically developed areas along the Ring Road’s northern stretch, among other places. Engineers also stated that the WTP at GETCO Chowkadi will make drinking water available for distribution in many of the city areas between Kalavad Road and Vavdi village.