Shimla water supply to normalise today

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 17

In the midst of increasing tourist rush, the residents in several wards of the capital city have been facing shortage of water for the past couple of days as the Shimla Jal Prabandh Nigam (SJPN) has shut down the Gumma pumping station for annual maintenance. 

As a result of the shutdown, the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has not been able to lift regular supply of water from Gumma source daily for the last three days. The total discharge of water pumped from different SMC’s eight different sources fell from 50.77 MLD on December 15 to 29.47 MLD pumpedon Monday. 

The SJPN hopes to ease the “temporary water shortage” in a day or two. 

When asked, Managing Director of SJPB Dharmender Gill said the supply from Gumma was stopped due to the mandatory maintenance of pumping machinery. “We used to pump about 22 MLD of water daily from there, but could not get more than 1.2 MLD. The water supply to the city would improve from tomorrow as the repair work is expected to complete this evening”, he added.

Many wards in the merged areas and within the old city did not get water supply even after three days. “We have not got water for the fourth day. Earlier, SMC used to supply water on an alternative day”, rued the residents in Kangnadhar, Vikasnagar, New Shimla, Panthaghatti, Mehli and Summarhill areas. 

In the wake of snowall at Shimla, Kufri and Narkanda hill stations, the tourist inflow has started soaring in the city.