Water Board dreams of more power

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board  (HMWS&SB) is actively contemplating an exclusive power plant for pumping water from various drinking water sources to Greater Hyderabad.A few days ago, the HMWS&SB, AP Transco and AP Genco authorities held discussions on the feasibility of the proposed project. The Water Board requires 100 MW and another 200-300 MW for future drinking water projects such as the Godavari Drinking Water Supply, planned to be taken up in three different phases, and Phase III of the Krishna Drinking Water Supply scheme to draw over 600 million gallons of water a day (MGD).The GDWSP Phase-I is already under progress to bring 172 MGD from Yellampally Barrage. Another two phases are planned after the completion of Phase-I. The State Government also proposed to augment 90 MGD of water through the Krishna Phase III from Akkampally.Currently, the Water Board is drawing over 300 MGD from various existing water sources like Manjira Phase I and II, Singur Phase III and IV, and Krishna Phase I and II by pumping water in different stages. For this process, HMWS&SB is utilising power from AP Transco.The existing consumption of Water Board is about 100 MW and it is paying about Rs 24 crore per month to the power department which works out to 60 per cent of its revenue collections.Further, for the ongoing Godavari Phase I, about 72 MW is required for four-stage pumping to augment 172 MGD of water from Yellampally Barrage up to the Master Balancing Reservoir proposed at Ghanapur. The board will incur another Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore per month towards power charges once they start pumping water. To meet the future power requirements, Water Board wanted a dedicated cost-effective power plant. The officials said they were still working out modalities to see whether to have a power plant or continue to get power supply from the AP Transco.