New Delhi Dec 21 PTI The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs MoHUA on Tuesday organised a technical conference-cum-exhibition here to disseminate knowledge on the planning design implementation operation and maintenance of 24x7 water supply systems The event was organised by the ministrys Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation CPHEEO an official statement said The inaugural session was chaired by MoHUA secretary Durga Shanker Mishra While addressing the session he emphasised the need for integrated water resource management with water conservation through recycling of used water control of NRW non-revenue water and rejuvenation of water bodies He also pitched for taking up 24x7 water supply projects in at least one wardDMA District Metered Area in 500 AMRUT cities under AMRUT 20 He said 24x7 water supply projects will ensure prevention of water contamination control of NRW equitable water supply and bring efficiency in terms of financial sustainability by attracting PPP funding and institutional financing The cities that are implementing 24x7 water supply projects showcased their best practices and technological solutions such as water meters valves GIS mapping and hydraulic modelling at the exhibition About 600 participants participated in the conference Also the guidelines for planning design and implementation of 24x7 water supply systems were released The conference was attended by technical heads chief engineers city engineers and senior engineers dealing with water supply in all the 500 AMRUT cities experts manufacturing firms and consultants PTI MAH SMN SMN

New Delhi Sep 28 PTI The new parliament building will meet the construction requirement in seismic zone-5 which covers the regions most vulnerable to earthquakes even though the national capital falls in the zone-4 and will qualify for the top green rating of five-star platinum a top government official said on Tuesday Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said it will look like twin sister of the current parliament building with its mosaic of red and yellow stones He also allayed apprehensions about the loss of trees due to the construction of the new building saying no trees were cut but 404 of them were transplanted and 80 per cent of them have survived In their place 4400 saplings have been planted he told reportersMishra claimed the new buildings will have state-of-the-art technological features making it secure against any security threats including those emanating from cyberware The new parliament building will be a great work of skill speed and scale he said Noting that the current parliament building was meant to be a meeting hall and retrofitted later and had two floors added which resulted in lack of sunlight he said the new building will be inviting and look like a peoples parliament With work going on round the clock the new building will meet its October 2022 deadline he asserted The winter session next year will be held in the new building he added Highlighting the hectic pace of work Mishra said over 4800 workers are deployed at the site and 1200 at different places adding that so far six lakh man days have been created Over 165 lakh cubic metre of soil was removed in 45 days he said highlighting the scale of the work It was disposed in a clinical manner that few would have noticed he added So far Mishra said 113625 cubic metre of concrete will be used at work and 72000 cubic metre of it has been done so far PTI KR ZMN ZMN