World Bank to fund Kol Dam project; Govt says all conditions will be fulfilled

SHIMLA: The World Bank has agreed to fund the ambitious Rs 643-crore water supply project for Shimla from Kol Dam and has laid down its conditions to the state government. The funding has come as a respite since the project has remained in doldrums all these years. The decision was taken in a meeting held on Thursday between state government officials and the World Bank team in Shimla.
State chief secretary Vineet Chawdhary said that all the conditions would be fulfilled at the earliest and the World Bank team would visit Shimla again in mid March before releasing the first installment of 45 million dollars for the project.
In the meeting, the World Bank team made it clear that a company should be hired for the project and the state government should not have any role in it. The representatives also asked the government to identify the service provider and ensure that the tariff is volume based for which bill needs to be issued on metre reading. For the distribution of water in Shimla as per the condition of the World Bank, the Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Circle would be converted into a company.
Shimla is facing acute shortage of water as the existing resources are not able to fulfil the rising demand due to increase in heavy influx of tourists. Incidentally, the World Bank had refused to fund the project before but now it wants actual action on the project. Drawing the Satluj water from Kol Dam will cater to Shimla residents and that of adjoining areas for the next many decades. In Shimla, due to poor quality of water, there was a jaundice outbreak two years back that killed many, leaving thousands of others indisposed.
During the previous Congress regime CM Virbhadra Singh and his cabinet colleague Vidya Stokes had differences on the issue. While Singh favoured water supply from Kol Dam, Stokes was for supply from the Pabbar river.
Following the dispute, Singh had formed a cabinet sub-committee to look into the matter, but Stokes later left the final decision with the CM who opted for Kol Dam. The water supply line of 22 km from Kol Dam is designed to provide around 35 MLD water to Shimla. In total, around 50 MLD water would be lifted from Kol Dam out of of which 35 MLD would be supplied to Shimla while the rest will cater to rural areas.