Bangalore: JNNURM is the buzzword this season with government officials. More dreams about better infrastructure are in the pipeline for citizens with a project on improvement of sewerage system in the city in the planning stages.

Close on the heels of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's request to the Centre under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) seeking nearly Rs. 1,000 crore for infrastructure projects, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is planning a Rs. 1,700 crore project to restore the sewerage system in the city.

Bangalore's sewerage system was initially designed in 1922. It covers about 215 km in the city and connects to five sewage treatment plants on the outskirts of the city. But owing to the haphazard growth of the city, sewerage lines are absent and the waste is let into the storm water drains that were designed to carry only rainwater to the four valleys in the city.

"Growth in the city is not horizontal anymore. It is witnessing a vertical growth that places a lot of pressure on the sewerage system," a top official at the BWSSB told The Hindu on Monday.

The BWSSB has called for tenders on an expression of interest basis to undertake a survey of the entire sewerage system in the city.

The survey will study the population and estimated growth in areas in the city so that the existing sewerage system could be improved to meet the demands.

It will also study the network of sewerage lines so that it could be improved for better disposal.

The project would be taken up in areas under the exiting BMP limits as another project — the Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project — is under way at areas surrounding Bangalore.

"Under the project, the sewerage system wherever found insufficient would be redesigned in terms of increasing the width of the pipes," the official said.

About Rs. 1,000 crore would go into improving the sewerage lines, while Rs. 700 crore would be used for programmes such as reducing water leakages in the existing water supply system.

The entire project is likely to be submitted to the Centre for its approval in the next four months, the official said.

The BWSSB has submitted only one Rs. 16-crore project to the Centre for a project that involves getting 100 million litres of water a day from the Cauvery.

This water is to serve the needs of people living in the eight urban local bodies.

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