Interview with Col. Gowardhan - HR Director, OCW on the key challenges and future plans for 24 x 7 water supply project at Nagpur

The interview showcases the key challenges and future plans of the 24x7 water supply operator for the city of Nagpur, as told to Mohammad.Sufiyan@pManifold.com

Nagpur 24x7 water supply project is the first urban water supply project in India. Could you, at the outset, help us understand the current status of the Project?

Nagpur comes along as the first big urban water supply project on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. In this Project, Orange City Water Pvt. Ltd. (OCW) is to upgrade city water distribution network through rehabilitation of the existing network and laying new network to achieve 24x7 uninterrupted water supply to city of Nagpur.The work is in progress under JnNRUM scheme. The plan agreed and approved for 5 years and in last 18 months OCW has been able to lay about 250 km of pipe line and done more than 26000 new service connections. One zone is already operating on 24x7 basis and few areas will be shortly added to 24x7 list as work in 3 areas is nearing completion.  Further to that, OCW is currently working in almost 30% of the city to improve the water mains network.