Sewerage pipeline project takes off

Rawalpindi: A project worth Rs 182 million to lay 42-km-long new sewerage pipeline in Khayaban-e-Sir Syed and Satellite Town has started and will be completed by the end May next year.

A senior official of the Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project (REIP)said that the REIP Project Management Unit (PMU) had contracted Competent Engineering Pvt Ltd for the project.

He said Rs 97 million would be spent on installation of a 29-km new sewerage -pipeline in Satellite Town, and Rs 85 million on a 15-km sewerage pipeline in Khyaban-e-Sir Syed.

After completion of work on the project, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) will operate the sewerage system, he said.

He said both localities were thickly populated so the existing sewerage lines should be replaced there. “These localities are vulnerable to floods as they are near Nullah Leh,” he said.

He said nine to 30 feet wide pipes would be laid down in the streets according to requirement. About 50 years ago, he said, three to nine feet wide sewerage pipes were laid down in Satellite Town and Khayaban-e-Sir Syed.

He said only 30 percent people were provided with proper sewerage facilities in these two areas and after the laying down of new sewerage pipes, the entire population could use the sewerage facilities.

He said Rawalpindi produced about 141,000 cubic metres of sewage, which was likely to grow to 272,000 cubic metres by 2025, according to Asian Development Bank estimates.

He said the new sewerage pipelines would be connected with Moti Mehal Outfall from where the sewage would be transmitted to the Adiala Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), which would be built at a cost of Rs 1.4 billion.

He said design and survey of the STP would likely complete this month and then bids for its construction would be called.