AHMEDABAD: A year ago, the city civic body had announced a scheme for residential societies to build percolation wells in which the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will bear 80% of the total cost of building the well while societies will bear the remaining 20% of the cost. Around one year has passed but not a single percolation well has been built under this scheme. Reason behind this is AMC is yet to set up a panel of contractors who would build these percolation wells.
Sources in the AMC said that while announcing the scheme which was aimed at addressing the water flooding during heavy rains, the civic body had decided that it will set up a panel of contractors who will carry out the construction of the wells under this scheme.
Sources said that the civic body receives many applications from residential societies but as there is no contractors’ panel in place, these applications are accepted but are not further processed. The scheme was launched under the requirements prescribed in the new GDCR that came into effect in 2017.The GDCR made percolation wells mandatory in residential societies that come up after 2017.
Sources said that it was decided that after setting up the panel, AMC will pass on the details of this panel to its zonal and sub-zonal offices where the applications for percolation wells are accepted.
“The panel was to be set up through tendering. The tendering process is going on. Once the panel is in place we will start sanctioning applications,” a senior official of the civic body said on condition of anonymity.
Another official in one of the zonal offices of the civic body said that most of the applications have been received from the areas in the western parts of the city. Recently, many residential societies in areas such as Prahladnaga, Jodhpur, Satellite and Bodakdev were flooded during the heavy spell of rains. Many areas in the eastern side of the city were also flooded that included New Nikol, Odhav and Kathwada.
80% Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation funding for percolating wells
AHMEDABAD: This week the AMC sought permission from the standing committee to launch its ambitious ‘percolating wells scheme’ for residential societies to promote ground water recharge. Under this scheme, the AMC will bear 80% of the cost of construction while the rest will be borne by the residential society. The scheme has been placed on the agenda of the committee’s meeting scheduled for Thursday.
With this essential nudge, the AMC plans to overcome a hurdle confronting the construction of the wells. Four years ago, the AMC had slapped 1,209 notices on multi storeyed buildings including apartments, asking them to show their groundwater percolating wells. These wells were made mandatory in 2001 for rainwater harvesting, according to the General Development Control Regulations (GDCR). In the posh West and New West zones alone, the AMC had issued about 730 notices .According to the GDCR, all building units larger than 1,000 sq. m must have a rainwater tank with adequate capacity. For buildings with ground coverage of more than 80 sq. m but below 500 sq. m, a percolation pit was mandated. Nothing major came out after these notices were issued. “The notices were not diligently followed up back then. But with this new incentive scheme, we will see how the societies respond,” said a senior official of the estate and town planning department of the AMC.
Vardhman Envirotech
India’s Passionate rainwater company
This article is published on: THE TIMES OF INDIA 5 February / 2023
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