Veolia Water India has set up Orange City Water, a joint venture with Indian civil engineering and services company Vishvaraj Environment Ltd, to deliver a continuous supply of drinking water to the homes of the 2.7 million people living in Nagpur, 24 hours per day and seven days per week, up from the current 2–12 hours per day. The service will be provided to the entire population of Nagpur, including the people who live in the city’s slums.
Awarded following an international call for tenders, the contract includes an initial five-year E60 million works program, mainly to rehabilitate and upgrade the network and connections to homes. This part of the contract will be 70% funded by the Indian government and 30% by the operator.
The project involves connecting up 2.7 million people, or 350 000–450 000 homes, to the distribution network. The amount of water available per person will be increased from 90 to 130 litres per day over the next five years.
Orange City Water will invest E18 million to renovate the city’s six water production plants and repair the 2500 km of network. The production capacity of the system managed by Orange City Water will eventually be close to 750 million litres per day and leakage from the network, which is currently 60%, will gradually be lowered to international standards.
