Jaipur, Ajmer to rely more on Bisalpur water

JAIPUR: The biggest beneficiary of interlinking of Brahmani and Banas River would be Jaipur and Ajmer.
The lifeline of the two cities— Bisalpur dam -- would be more reliable in the coming years after interlinking the two rivers.
As of now, more than 75% of water in Jaipur is being supplied through Bisalpur dam.
According to PDCOR’s assistant vice-president Manish Gupta, “It is a project to make Bisalpur dam more reliable.The dam, which is on Banas river, has to be supplemented. The past record says there are bad cycles which had made Bisalpur dam dry, but in coming days when the need of water will increase with increase in population, there would be more people dependent on Bisalpur dam and now government wants to make it more reliable by bringing water from Brahmani river.”
Jaipur is getting almost 310 million liters per day, which helps in fulfilling everyday demand of water in the city. The approximate requirement of water in Jaipur is 400 MLD. The rest of the requirement of 90 MLD is fulfilled by groundwater (tubewells). Since, over the years, the groundwater level has decreased significantly in the city. Also, as the groundwater level depleted, the quality of water is badly affected as the contents of fluorides and nitrates has also increased. Ajmer is facing more or less the same situation. Since both Jaipur and Ajmer will be more dependent on Bisalpur dam, the state government felt the need to make it more reliable and decided to bring Brahmani water to Bisalpur dam through a tunnel.
As per the plans, the amount of water which will be transferred to Bisalpur dam would be approximately 355 million cubic meters (MCM). Nearly 170 MCM would be transferred from Brahmani river. Another 285 MCM would be lifted from Rana Pratap dam’s catchment area to transfer it to proposed Brahmani dam. From Brahmani dam, it will be shifted to Bisalpur dam through tunnel.
Bisalpur water
Capacity of Bisalpur dam is 939 million cubic meters (CMC)
Out of 939 CMC, 458 CMC is reserved for drinking purposes, 226 CMC is reserved for irrigation purpose and 255 CMC is expected to be per year loss due to evaporation and seepage