Bokakhat Water Supply Scheme Remains Defunct for Two Decades Amid Official Negligence

A CORRESPONDENT

BOKAKHAT: The Bokakhat town water supply scheme has remained defunct for the last 20 years — a two-decade-long failure that has not been able to provide even a single drop of clean drinking water to the residents of Bokakhat.

The Bokakhat municipal water supply project was approved during the tenure of the Late Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s government in 2005, under the leadership of the then Urban Development Minister, Late Hemprakash Narayan. However, despite being inaugurated by the minister himself, the ambitious water supply project has remained abandoned in the middle of Bokakhat town.

The project, approved by Late Hemprakash Narayan and constructed at Rs 4.04 crore, included a massive elevated water tank, multiple reservoirs capable of purifying water, and office buildings intended to supply purified drinking water to the public. The Assam Urban Water Supply and Waste Management Board established the project in 2005 under the name ‘Accelerated Urban Water Supply Scheme, Bokakhat.’ The scheme had the capacity to treat and supply 1.90 million litres of water per day. After the infrastructure work was completed, pipelines needed to be laid from the treatment plant to every ward to distribute clean drinking water. However, the department faced major difficulties while attempting to lay pipelines to Wards 1 and 3 because the pipelines had to pass beneath National Highway 37.

The water supply department had not obtained permission from the National Highways Authority to lay pipelines under the highway. As a result, the project came to a standstill. According to reports, despite repeated efforts, the department failed to secure permission to install pipelines beneath the national highway. Consequently, the Bokakhat water supply scheme, which was stalled two decades ago over these issues, never became operational.

No departmental inquiry was ever conducted into the failure of the project despite it remaining defunct for 20 years. The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad has demanded that the ambitious Bokakhat urban water supply scheme be revived and made functional again.

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