Water Grid Corporation set up by TS government

HYDERABAD: As part of implementing its ambitious drinking water project, the Water Grid, that will supply drinking water to gram panchayats, urban municipalities and also to industries by linking up a number of water resources on Godavari and Krishna basins, the state government constituted the Telangana Drinking Water Supply Corporation (TDWSC) with experts in the field as directors.

The government has decided to constitute the corporation so as to mobilise the required funds for implementing the project. The corporation will have the authority to fix, revise whenever necessary and to collect the tariff for the bulk drinking water supply as per the policy guidelines of the government.

The corporation will have principal secretary, panchayat raj and rural water supply as its vice-chairman while the engineer-in-chief of RWS, public health and experts from drinking water supply, electricity and others will be the directors.

A GO to constitute the corporation was issued on Friday. As the corporation will be registered under Companies Act, 2013, the authorised share capital of the new company is proposed at ` 5 crore divided into 50,00,000 equity shares of `10 each.

Similarly, there should be a paid up capital of the company which shall be a minimum of `5 lakh. Accordingly, the paid-up capital for the corporation is proposed at `2 crore divided into 20,00,000 equity shares of `10 each.

There should be seven or more shareholders for the proposed company as it is a public limited company. Governor of Telangana will hold 19,99,992 shares of the TDWSC while eight other members will hold other shares.

The staff required by the corporation shall be drafted from RWS&S department and PHED on deputation. However, based on the need staff from other departments like PR, R&B, revenue and energy departments can also be drafted on deputation.

The corporation will undertake works of the water supply project outside Outer Ring Road while the intra village or intra municipal works shall be taken up by the respective local bodies. The funds required for setting up of the corporation shall be met from the funds provided for the water grid.

Through the project, water is proposed to be supplied to villages through a maze of over 1.25 lakh km of distribution pipelines and balancing reservoirs.

The scheme envisages lifting water from sources and distribute in an optimised manner of lift, pumping and gravitational flow. The government contemplates to implement the project in a timebound manner of four years.