Chandigarh, Aug 4 (IANS): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated a round-the-clock water supply project for Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, under the Smart City Mission in Manimajra to benefit over 1 lakh residents.

"Water is very important, we cannot exist without it. When it is not clear, we get a lot of diseases. For this whole area, 24X7 supply of filter-cleaned water will be provided through this for the people in the area. It will stand to the test of time," he said in his address after inaugurating the project under the Smart City mission.

Later, the Union Home Minister will also review the implementation of new criminal laws at the secretariat, before leaving the city at 5 p.m.

He reached the Chandigarh airport and was received by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria. The Home Minister headed directly to Manimajra to launch the project constructed at the cost of Rs 75 crore will benefit over 1 lakh residents in Manimajra, including those living in Modern Housing Complex, Shivalik Enclave, Indira Colony and Shastri Nagar.

The project is aimed at avoiding wastage of water by minimising its storage by the public through 24x7 high-pressure supply.

Other features of the project include water resource augmentation through leakage reduction, smart metering, limited dependence on groundwater and monitoring of energy consumption.

A total of 22 km water supply pipeline has been laid for this project. Two underground water reservoirs, each having capacity of two million gallons per day, have been set up.

Nearly 270 km of the City Beautiful’s water supply network, which is not conducive for supply of high-pressure water, will also be replaced later.

The project will be implemented phase-wise, for which the city has been divided into 55 district metering areas. The initial phase is the round-the-clock water supply. The entire city is expected to be covered by 2028.

He will also inaugurate the e-evidence, Nyay Setu, Nyay Shruti and e-summon systems built to augment the criminal justice apparatus in the city.

"Today, Bharat's criminal justice system will take a giant stride towards providing speedy and timely justice to people. Will inaugurate the e-evidence, Nyay Setu, Nyay Shruti and e-summon systems built to augment our criminal justice apparatus in Chandigarh," the Union Minister posted on social media platform X.