In a decisive move, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has officially terminated the ambitious, French-funded city-wide 24x7 water supply project, first conceived nearly ten years ago. The General House meeting held on Tuesday saw a unanimous resolution to abandon the Rs 1,700-crore initiative, marking a significant policy reversal.
Administrator's Warning and Political Unity
Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria played a pivotal role, strongly advising councillors against proceeding with the massive project. He highlighted both practical difficulties and potential political fallout, drawing from his firsthand experience with a similar failed Smart City water scheme in Udaipur.
"In my city, roads were dug up for years, causing residents to suffer poor conditions. People still waste potable water for car washing and farming," Kataria cautioned. He warned that replicating such extensive digging in Chandigarh would create dust pollution, severely disrupt local businesses, and ultimately damage councillors' prospects for re-election.
Flaws in Plan and Pilot Project Failure
The Administrator also raised serious doubts about the reliability of the Detailed Project Report (DPR), which was prepared free of cost. He pointed to the evident failures in the pilot project conducted in Manimajra as a major red flag.
The pilot exposed critical shortcomings, including inadequate surveys of existing pipelines, a continued dependence on overhead water tanks, and an inability to control illegal water connections. These issues collectively made the goal of providing continuous, pressurised water supply unfeasible and highlighted fundamental flaws in the project's design.
Cross-Party Consensus Against the Project
In a rare display of political unity, councillors from all major parties rejected the project and its proposed alternatives. The discussion revealed a strong consensus that there was no public demand for such a costly overhaul.
Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabbi stated that neither residents nor their representatives were asking for this project, suggesting that fixing the current faulty pipelines would be a better use of resources. BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi emphasized that water is a basic necessity and should not be turned into a profit-making venture that burdens citizens with loan repayments through inflated water bills.
AAP councillor Yogesh Dhingra pointedly asked why the city should pursue a Rs 1,700-crore project that would burden citizens when the Manimajra pilot had already failed and there was no public appetite for it.
The New Path Forward
Following the debate, the House passed a binding resolution that charts a new course for Chandigarh's water infrastructure. The resolution dictates that any future upgrades to the water supply system will be undertaken strictly on a need-based basis, only after thorough surveys are conducted.
Critically, the MC resolved that such works will be funded solely through its own resources, explicitly ruling out any external loans or large-scale, city-wide initiatives. This marks a complete departure from the original plan, which was backed by the French agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD). AFD had already suspended its activities related to the project due to escalating costs and significant implementation hurdles.
The scrapping of this decade-old project represents a major shift in Chandigarh's approach to urban utility management, prioritizing incremental, self-funded improvements over mega-projects with high financial and social costs.
