November 27 is going to be a historic day for the people of Hyderabad. The river Godavari is entering the city to rescue the thirsty people of Hi-tech city. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (simply water board) has successfully completed the Godavari Drinking Water Project, phase-I, of course with some hiccups. The pipeline laid for the purpose has pumped the Godavari water to the 150 MLD Master Balancing Reservoir (MBR) built at Ghanpur near Shamirpet. Phase-I of Godavari Drinking Water Project (Moulana Abul Kalam Hyderabad Sujala Sravanthi Scheme) has been taken up to supply 172 million gallons of water per day (MGD) Hyderabad and surrounding municipalities.. The GDWSS Phase-I has been taken up at a cost of Rs 3,375 crore. Hudco has provided Rs 2000 crore of total cost of the project while the remainder is being borne by the Water Board. The source of water is Yellampalli barriage in Karimnagar district. To draw the water from the project an intake well has been built at a cost of Rs 30 crore at village Murmur.

Water Board officials say the Godavari phase-I water will be supplied to the city from November 27. The twin cities will receive about 28 million gallons per day (MGD). The Godavari Phase I water supply project has four pumping stations at Bommakal, Mallaram Kondapaka and Ghanpur. From Ghanpur the water will be supplied to the twin cities.

According to the board officials the Godavari water supply project if completed, would draw 172 million gallons per day (MGD), taking the total water supply to 600 MGD, including the Krishna phase-3 project to the city. It would benefit about 20 lakh people in the twin cities.

The trial run for the supply of Godavari water has also been carried out in four stages from Murmur to Bommakal in stage one, Bommakal to Mallaram stage two, Mallaram to Kondapaka in stage three and Kondapaka to Ghanpur of Ranga Reddy district in stage four.