Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday directed the officers of Municipal Corporation Shimla to take immediate steps for checking leakage of water and completing the work on changing the main water supply line from Craignano to Dhalli (7 KMs).

Thakur held a meeting with senior officers of various departments to review the measures being undertaken for improvement in water supply for Shimla city for various water sources. He told the civic body to improve water distribution system and said nine additional storage tanks would be constructed in Shimla town that would help in storing an extra 17 million litres of water.

The CM said the officials must put efforts to re-charge water sources around Shimla to add to daily water availability.

He directed the concerned departments to speed up or initiate work on the short and long term plans so that most of the works could be completed within a year and there should be no water crisis in Shimla during the next summer season. He also asked to fast-track the work on medium-term plans being executed for enhancing water capacity in different schemes.

The CM said that efforts were on to ensure availability of more than 10 million litres of water per day for Shimla by enhancing the capacity of Gumma, Ashwani Khud and Giri river from where the water was being supplied to the city.

He said more tube wells would be explored in the Ashwani Khud area and check dams would be constructed upstream of Gumma and Giri water sources.

Thakur said that the work on Chaba project should be completed within a year which shall provide 10 to 15 MLD of extra water to the Gumma water source.

Thakur stressed that all the line departments should work in close coordination so that unwanted delays could be avoided and the targets could be achieved within the stipulated time period.

Secretary, Irrigation and Public Health department Devesh Kumar said that ultraviolet radiation technology would be tried in Ashwani Khud water source to kill the germs and the process has been started to construct check dams on all the sources of water lifting. He also briefed about the visit of Central Water Commission team to Shimla and suggestions given by it.

Chief Secretary Vineet Chaudhary, Additional Chief Secretaries Srikant Baldi, Anil Khachi and Tarun Kapoor were also present in the meeting.