Probably for the first time, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has provided a drip irrigation system for greenery abutting the road. The drip system is being provided for the 158-km outer ring road. Municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao commissioned the drip irrigation system on Friday. HMDA metropolitan commissioner and special chief secretary Arvind Kumar said the drip system is being provided by dividing the entire road stretch into five packages and 62 blocks at a cost of ₹47 crore, including seven years of maintenance. Officials said the entire ORR has 63,13,503 plants abutting the roads and medians. The plants are maintained and watering is being done manually through tankers. “But, watering through tankers is costly and not safe to watering workers on ORR and also leads to wastage of water. Hence watering through drip system has been proposed,” Arvind Kumar said.
Officials said for the drip system, 94 borewells and 92 sumps are required. Water is pumped and discharged through a network of pipes and to the root of plants directly by drips connected on pipes. The drip lines are provided each on left side, median and right side of ORR, including inter-changes covering hedge, shrub and avenue plantation, totalling approximately 1,500 km of drip lines.
Also, the sprinkler system is provided at Nanakramguda central median and other pockets, HMDA officials said.
The special chief secretary said the system has three main advantages. It is cost-effective as the HMDA has been spending ₹20 crore annually while the cost of maintenance will come down to ₹14 crore with the use of drip system. As many as 4,304 tankers are used witheach tanker consuming at 107 ML per month whereas drip system consumes only 89 ML of water.
It also has technological advantages and minimal human intervention.
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