HYDERABAD, March 21: District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has said that work on nine major sewerage pumping stations is proceeding at a hectic pace and added that operational capacity of existing pumping stations will be increased by 1000 per cent. He said all out efforts were being made to complete the development projects within the stipulated period.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a sewerage pumping station in Latifabad-6 on Tuesday.

The nazim said one of the chronic problems confronting the people of Hyderabad was poor sewerage system as main roads of the city regularly remained submerged due to overflow of gutters. He added no system existed to drain out rainwater.

He said that was the reason that the district government had given priority to resolving the sewerage problem and claimed that in 17 months, the problem had almost been resolved.

He said nine big pumping stations were being set up in the city out of which three were in Qasimabad taluka, five in Latifabad taluka and one in the City taluka. The pumping station inaugurated today was part of the programme, he added.

Giving details, he said the pumping station had been established at a cost of Rs80 million and had a capacity of draining out four million gallons of sewage per day.

He said big sewerage lines, including trunk sewers, had been laid to drain out sewage from Latifabad 9 and 10.

Mr Jamil said another pumping station in Latifabad would become functional next month as a result of which sewerage problem of the entire Latifabad taluka would be resolved and the temporary pumping stations demolished. He said a population of 380,000 souls in various units in Latifabad would be provided relief after completion of the works.

He said major pumping stations would be equipped with generators to continue the process of draining out sewage in case of power breakdown.

Latifabad Taluka Nazim Sabir Hussain Kaimkhani and naib nazim Shujauddin Shaikh also spoke on the occasion. Project director, water supply and sewerage, Abdul Malik Khatri, gave details of the project.