Valsad/Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Gujarat visit on Friday, will inaugurate the Astol project. The project worth Rs 586 crore project will bring a new change in the lives of 4.5 lakh people living in 174 villages and 1,028 habitations in the hinterland tribal areas of Valsad.
Target is to declare Gujarat as a state with total tap water supply by September 2022, in which 95.91 per cent of the work has been completed so far. Modi will dedicate several major projects to the public during his proposed visit to Gujarat on June 10, including an ambitious Astol project.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Rajnikant Patel informed about the project of the Gujarat government, saying, “Completion of the Astol project in Dharampur and Kaprada areas of Valsad district was a big challenge for us, but we are glad that our engineers have completed this challenging task. The Astol project is also a great achievement from the engineering point of view too. It has been made possible to distribute water in this hilly area by raising it to a height of about 200 storeys (1875 ft).’
The geographical structure of the tribal areas of Dharampur and Kaprada is such that neither the rain water can be stored there, nor the ground water condition is good. Most of the land is rocky. Due to this, the reservoirs here dry up completely after a short time of monsoon. State Government, in the year 2018, started the Astol project with the aim of providing drinking water to the people living in this hilly region at a cost of Rs 586.16 crore.
There are plans to take water from Madhuban Dam (gross capacity 567 million cubic meters) up to the pumping station (lift technology) and deliver water to people’s homes.
Under this project, 28 pumping stations with a capacity of 8 MW Volt Ampere (MVA) have been set up, through which about 75 million liters of drinking water will be delivered to 4.50 lakh people per day.
Under this project, 81 km of pumping line, 855 km of distribution line and 340 km of pipeline have been laid to supply water to small habitations.
Establishment of two filter plants (each with a capacity of 33 million litres of water per day) to provide pure drinking water with a total capacity of 66 million litres of water per day.
In these areas, 66 high tanks (capacity of 0.47 million liters), 28 underground tanks (capacity of 77 million liters) and 1202 ground level tanks (capacity of 44 million liters) have been constructed in these areas. Special technology was used for laying the pipeline.
According to the structure of the land here, pipeline has been laid, which is either high or low. Because of this the water pressure in these pipes is normal in some places, in some places the water pressure is much higher than normal (40 per kilo centimeter square). This pressure is so high that it can cause significant damage to the pipelines. The solution to all these problems is the use of 12 mm thick mild steel pipe inside the main pipe to prevent breakage of the main pipe.
Astol project can be considered important from the engineering point of view, under this project water will be pumped from Madhuban Dam to 50 villages of Dharampur and 124 villages of Kaprada (174 villages in total) to a height of about 200 storeys (lift technology). This is the first time that the Madhuban Dam water will be used as drinking water. Earlier this dam was used for irrigation. However, along with drinking water, the water of the dam will continue to be used for irrigation like before.