Punjab News/Civic operation in major cities of Punjab be run on world class technology: Joshi

Chandigarh, November 15, 2013: The major cites of Punjab would soon witness the world class delivery of service in the field of water supply and sewerage as the Punjab Government would run all these operations on the lines of those companies operating this civic system in the developed countries. Anil Joshi, Local Bodies Minister, Punjab expressed his willingness to emulate the best practices adopted by the world 3rd largest company M/s Aqualia and 2nd largest company M/s Suez Environment in the management and maintenance of water supply and sewerage.

Joshi, who along with high level delegation visited the headquarters of these companies in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, took stock of the operations of these companies in the management of water supply and sewerage. The Minister said that the Punjab Government would try to emulate the best practices of these companies as a pilot project in the major cities of Punjab namely Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Mohali.

Disclosing this here today, Joshi said that this delegation visited Madrid, Llieda and Barcelona in Spain to assess the integrated water supply and sewerage works operated by private companies for Metro Municipalities. The team also held discussions with the management of these organisations, regarding the modalities and prospects of undertaking integrated water supply and sewerage, operation and maintenance works on pilot basis in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Mohali etc. The Minister was highly impressed to see the working of the companies in the management and delivery of civic amenities.

The Minister praised the professionalism and state of the art technology being adopted by these companies. He held discussions with the management to explore the ways and means to replicate the same kind of system in the cities of Punjab. It is pertinent to mention here that this high level delegation under the chairmanship of Anil Kumar Joshi earlier visited the Israel to assess the working of major Municipalities. The Minister was accompanied by Major General V.K.Bhatt, Technical, G.M. Balamurgan, CEO of PMIDC and S.K.Garg, Chief Engineer.