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India has gigantic necessity of Infrastructure building and improvement. The PPP route was established in last decade also saw some lean time. With New government initiative the PPP has again come with better risk sharing matrix between private and public. Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited saw this prospect and decided to have a model for 24x7 water supply. Orange City Water (OCW) also popularly known as the Nagpur 24x7 Water supply along with Veoila France made this happen.

OCW will have to deliver a uninterrupted supply of drinking water to the homes of the 2.7 million people living in Nagpur, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, up from the current two to 12 hours a day. The service will be provided to the entire population of Nagpur, including the third of the population living in the city's slums. This will be a first in India. Orange City Water (OCW) will invested 18 million Euros in the project to renovate the city's six water production plants and repair the 2,500 km of network. The production capacity of the system managed by OCW will eventually be close to 750 million liters a day and leakage from the network, which is currently 60%, will gradually be lowered to international standards.

Vishvaraj Environment Pvt. Ltd. (VEL) is a subsidiary of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd. (VIL), a transportation infrastructure development company from India. With a humble start over a decade ago with development of road project on BOT model, today VIL is successfully managing four concession contracts in transportation (road) sector and the fifth contract is under execution. Over this decade long journey, VIL has acquired knowledge to evolve systems in sectors where society at large is involved and all stakeholder's interests need to be understood and addressed, ensuring a win-win situation for all, more so in a developing and culturally diverse country like India. VIL proposes to put to use this knowledge in few more sectors, water being a major focus area through its subsidiary Vishvaraj Environment. Vishvaraj Environment foresees a great opportunity for the private sector to participate in financing, building and maintaining urban water supply infrastructure projects and has geared itself to build the capacities for the future.

The water scenario in India has been on the uproar of the nation. With areas hit with drought and no water to drink it’s been a major concern for one and all in the country.  Amongst the challenges thrown up by augmented urbanization in India one of the bigger ones is enormous increase in wastewater generation. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) estimates that about 80 percent of the water supplied for domestic use is discharged as wastewater. This pollutes the downstream areas as it enters untreated into these water bodies. Around 38,250 MLD of wastewater is generated by class I and class II cities in India, which is estimated to grow 3.5 times to 132,250 MLD by 2050. The current wastewater treatment capacity can handle only 30 percent of the total generation, out of which too only 55 percent is operational. This translates to an investment gap of over USD 7 Billion for class I and class II cities by 2016-17.

Here is what Mr. Arun Lakhani CMD of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited, VIL India has to say about the situation at hand - What is required is an integrated approach to water management, by integrated approach we need to see the complete water cycle as a whole. So we detect it from a source, then the treatment part then the distribution part then the customer service part. So if you have 24x7 in the distribution part that definitely improves not only the water quality & drinking water but also saves water. Then comes the second very important part is the sewage treatment. Sewage treatment and the reuse of sewage treated water complete the cycle. Sewage treatment or waste water treatment has been on Mr. Arun Lakhani’s mind for a while.

In Mr Arun Lakhani’s opinion if waste water is treated it can be used for industrial purpose, which gives leave way for fresh water to be used in household and agricultural activities in India. Currently the industrial sector, which is one of the biggest consumers of water, is supplied 89% of fresh, treated portable water. They can easily use waste water treated up to the secondary level. This not only frees up huge quantities of fresh potable water but also saves the downstream water bodies from pollution. As of now the household and agricultural sector receivers only 11% of fresh water. Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited has been advocating this model for quite some time now and they are of the opinion that the operator need to invest 100% in infrastructure and technology for this model to be a complete success.

Successful implementation of Waste Water in India by VIL is the 200 MLD Waste Water Treatment Project in Nagpur. Nagpur City now has 24x7 pressurized water supplies for all the citizens of the city. Another waste water reuse opportunity is the Namami Ganga Program. VIL and the authorities of Namami Ganga are already working on this project.

Privvatising water is a contentious issue, but the fact remains it could prove beneficial to the country.

According to the numbers crunched by VIL prove that privatisation of water not only made social sense but also business sense. Citing Nagpur, the state pumps 540 million litres of water a day, but only 140 million litres, nearly 26% are accounted for. This clearly shows that the state is losing 400 million litres, which could have been incentivised. In fact, if water is metered, tariffs will go down as many people will be paying.

Yet, there remain concerns that privatisation could lead to a supply shortage, thus enabling private companies to only pay those with the highest fee. However, this may not happen as private firms, like VIL, would only be involved in making tap water connections available to all houses and metering them, while fees and tariffs would be decided by the concerned municipal body.

Water privatisation has become a very political issue. Yet, VIL has not been deterred. The company has been implementing road projects worth Rs 16,120 crore in Maharashtra. This includes ventures into water distribution on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis.

With Nagpur 24x7, as its center point of projects based on water distribution, the company has similarly been implementing projects in cities like Magadi, Bidar, Basavakalyan, Shahabad and Yadgir in Karnataka. In the southern state, VIL plans to create 3.81 lakh water connections and lay 992 km of pipelines.

Once these projects get completed, more than 80,000 people will be able to drink water straight from their taps in these five cities, similarly seen in developed countries.  The Nagpur-based company plans to overhaul the water distribution network in these cities.

“Communicating with people and getting them on board is crucial while taking up such a project. There is a World Bank report that quotes not-so-successful projects and the main reason is mishandling of the social side,” Arun Lakhani, chairman and director of VIL told BusinessLine.

The need for clean drinking water is an urgent requirement, but with limited funds, towns are looking to set up more water projects. This, in turn such plans keep sewage projects on the hold. According to Arun Lakhani, chairman and director of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited (VIL)  this is leading to pumping out 38,000 million litres of sewage water daily without any sort of treatment.

It hard to fathom sewage anything but waste matter, but Arun Lakhani, chairman and director of Vishvaraj Infrastructures Limited (VIL) believes sewage needs to be looked at as a resource. And as the country is getting ready to develop smart cities it is pertinent to use sewage as a resource  to ensure water security.

In an interview with Business Line, Lakhani said “Sewage is a large resource available within the city which can be treated and used for industrial and commercial purposes. This will result in releasing fresh water for residents which was earlier allocated to industry, creating water security for at least 30-40 years. The government should work towards developing business models so that private players can set up treatment plants.”

The need for clean drinking water is an urgent requirement, but with limited funds, towns are looking to set up more water projects. This, in turn such plans keep sewage projects on the hold. According to Lakhani this is leading to pumping out 38,000 million litres of sewage water daily without any sort of treatment.

Under the banner ‘Orange City Water’, in collaboration with Veolia Group, VIL  has been operating ‘Nagpur 24x7 pressurised water supply scheme’. The project plans to create 24x7 water supply to Maharashtra’s third largest urban state. In it

The scope of the project includes replacement of 300,000 house service connections, rehabilitations of treatment facilities, service reservoirs and pipeline; management of the drinking water cycle, from production, treatment, transport, storage to distribution to the customer's taps; establishing a customer service center to offer round-the-clock assistance and billing and collection of the water charges on behalf of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Project Cost.

At the launch of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City, the project was showcased as a model case study to other cities. Water and sanitation is among the top three focus areas under the missions.

Apart from a sewage treatment plant in Nagpur, Vishvaraj Infrastructures has projects in Karnataka under which it is supplying 24x7 water supply to five towns namely Bidar, Basavkalyan, Magadi, Shahbad and Yadgir.