HMRL to build 300 rainwater harvesting structures

HYDERABAD: As a part of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) minister K T Rama Rao’s ‘Jalam Jeevam’ program and in a bid to address water stagnation, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) will build 300 innovative rainwater harvesting structures along metro corridors in the city.
These structures will be built along metro corridors at Miyapur, JNTU, Kukatpally, Punjagutta, Irrummanzil, Khairatabad, Ameerpet, Maduranagar, Malakpet, Dilsukhnagar, Narayanaguda and RTC ‘X’ roads, where low-lying road points/areas have been identified, announced HMRL authorities on Sunday.While 100 ‘innovative rain water harvesting structures’ will be built with injection borewells at the edge of roads, 200 will be built without injection borewells, to recharge the fast-depleting water table in the city, said HMRL managing director N V S Reddy on Sunday.
“The rain water harvesting structures that have already been completed performed well during the recent rain and large quantities of water which otherwise would have stagnated on the road surface got sucked into these structures. Each such rain water harvesting structure with injection borewell costs around one and a half lakh rupees,” Reddy added.
Improvement of existing storm water drains, construction of new ones and desiltation works at storm water drains have also been undertaken by HMRL on a large scale, said authorities.
After drilling a six-inch diameter perforated injection pipe with PVC casing to a depth of about 150 feet, a rain water harvesting structure is constructed all around the injection borewell, said HMRL authorities while explaining the working of these structures.
The rain water harvesting structure which is normally 14 feet long and 8 feet wide, will be dug up to a depth of about eight feet and is filled with 75 mm and 40 mm broken granite stones in two layers. Coarse sand is then spread over the granite metal stones. A strong random rubble masonry wall will then be constructed all around this rectangular pit and this well-like structure is covered with a thick reinforced concrete slab on top, at the road level to withstand heavy vehicles which pass over them. According to authorities, enough gap is also left between the filled-up portion of the rain water well and the perforated RCC slab above, which can hold a minimum of 5,000 litres (one tanker) of water at any point of time and the rain water constantly gets sucked at good speed to deep underground layers through the injection borewell.