NEW DELHI: Speaking at today’s Delhi Economic Conclave that was inaugurated by Hon. Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, The Hon. Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, to T Shanmugaratnam praised work done by OCW for water saving initiatives and 24X7 water supply which is an example for India and beyond.
Expressing his gratitude to T Shanmugaratnam, Hon. Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore who was speaking at Delhi Economic Conclave 2017, which was inaugurated today by Hon Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. Arun Lakhani, CMD, Vishvaraj Infrastructure, said,
“We are pleased that our efforts and work is being recognized at International level as well. These acknowledgement encourages not only us but all “People” of Nagpur who have contributed and are involved in making 24X7 water availability in the city a dream come true. Being a perfect example of 4Ps, Public- Private- Partnership and encouraging participation of People for sustainable life of project at large, the Orange City Water (OCW) Project in Nagpur is the first one in India that looks to provide 24×7 water supply to all its residents, regardless of their socio-economic status. We are extremely thankful to Hon Deputy PM of Singapore who acclaimed efforts of our and government authorities in successful water audit, thereby reducing the water losses, corporatization of the entity and economic water pricing. We are quite happy that our vision and that Hon Deputy PM of Singapore echoed are in line, which are — our belief in evolution of the PPP model to 4P and thereby on-boarding citizens to bring in transparency, sustainability, efficiency and above all accountability
A good example of the role played by the government in water reforms across its cities and towns. We have started with recommended water audit for Nagpur and offered to fund 50 per cent of the cost of determining the gap between the water supplied and the water billed to consumers for water ostensibly consumed. In fact, Nagpur was the first city to take up the offer and found that its water losses were of the order of 52 per cent. As much as 30 per cent of water was lost during transportation from the bulk source to the distribution network. Thanks to the state government’s role in encouraging and partially funding the water audit, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) realised that fixing the leaks along the transmission route of water from its basic source to the city was an important part of the solution”.
The Nagpur 24X7, OCW project Orange City Water Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture between Vishvaraj Environment and Veolia Water India Pvt Ltd. The project has been successful running for last 5 years and has seen non-revenue water supply coming down from 51 per cent to 32 per cent. At one point of time where there was no or alternative day water supply in the city the model has turnaround to be called as Nagpur 24X7. This scheme was implemented on PPP basis where the decisive authority remain with the Public Partner and the implementation would be the responsibility of Private Partner, thus brining accountability and transparency for water audit to both parties.
“The need of an hour where we need similar corporatization’s via Public Private Placement (PPP) model that can emerge as one stream of financing that could reduce the gap and bring more transparency. The government must build on its success and continue to promote these type of platforms for Smart Cities in order to gain diverse industry insights and urban planning”, added Lakhani.
