New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to dedicate several big projects to the people of Gujarat during his visit to the state on June 10.
During his one-day visit, PM Modi will inaugurate the Astol project that will ensure tap water to 4.50 lakh people residing in 174 tribal villages and 1,028 hamlets on the hills of Valsad district.
Giving details of the project, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said, “It was a challenging task to complete the Astol project in Kaprada and Dharampur talukas of Valsad district, but I am glad our engineers overcame all the hurdles.”
The project is being seen as a technological marvel from the engineering perspective as well.
Through this project, the state government has ensured the availability of water in these hilly areas by taking water to the height of about 200-storey building (1,875 ft).
Significance of Astol project:
Official sources said the topography of the tribal areas of Dharampur and Kaprada is such that neither the retention of rainwater is possible nor the groundwater can be stored.
The reason is that most of the land in the region is rocky, and rainwater run-off is rapid.
As a result, only reservoirs are filled during the rainy season.
Many springs and streams dry up during summers. In 2018, the state government initiated the Astol Project at the cost of Rs 586.16 crore with the aim of ensuring a potable water supply to the people living in these hilly areas.
What is Astol Project?
Other details of the project are – Water from Madhuban Dam (water holding gross capacity of 567 million cubic metres) will be pumped through pumping stations using the lift technique to reach people’s homes. Under this project, 28 pumping stations with a capacity of 8-Megawatt Volt Ampere (MVA) have been set up, which will help supply about 75 million litres of drinking water daily to 4.50 lakh people– 81 km of pumping line, 855 km of distribution line and 340 km pipelines were laid to bring water to be big and small settlements.
To store water in these areas, six high tanks (capacity of 4.7 million litres), 28 underground tanks (capacity of 7.7 crore litres) and 1,202 tanks (capacity of 44 million litres) at the ground level in villages and habitations have been constructed, sources said.
Moreover, this will be for the first time that the Madhuban Dam’s water will be used for drinking purposes, as earlier, it has been only used for irrigation purposes.
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