New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) Aiming to increase water production in the national capital, the Delhi Jal Board has started work to increase the storage capacity of the Wazirabad pond area.

Earlier this month, Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma visited the Wazirabad water treatment plant (WTP) and announced that the government is working on a project to carry out desilting of the Wazirabad pond in North Delhi district.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has now issued a tender, inviting companies to carry out the work at a cost of Rs 25 crore and remove 3.63 lakh cubic metres of silt from the pond. As per estimates, the desilting work will increase the water-holding capacity of the raw water pond by approximately 100 million gallons per day (MGD).

The Wazirabad barrage is the first point of interception of the Yamuna River in the national capital, where the DJB constructed one of the biggest WTPs in the city, having an average water production capacity of 138 MGD.

Over the past few years, Delhi’s water production grew from an average of 927 MGD in 2020-21 to 990-1,000 MGD in 2024. However, the requirement of the city is around 1,290 MGD, as per the Economic Survey, which the DJB is yet to achieve.

“The work will be carried out upstream of the river, starting from Wazirabad up to Ramghat, which is a distance of around 1 km. Usually, during the monsoon season, silt is carried away downstream, but this is legacy silt, which has accumulated over the years,” a DJB official said.

According to the Delhi government, the desilting process would be completed in two months, after which the pond would be able to store water at double its current capacity.

During an earlier inspection, Verma drank treated water from the plant and assured that it was completely safe and drinkable.

“The Wazirabad WTP has a storage capacity of 220 MGD, but due to silt accumulation along a one-km stretch, it is currently holding only around 100 MGD,” the water minister said.

Verma also said that while Delhi receives adequate water from its neighbouring states, improvements were needed for storage infrastructure and leakage prevention. PTI SSM ARI