APWD constructs & maintains both urban and rural roads in these islands. APWD has built more than 1232 Km of roads of which a major chunk of 665 Km forms rural roads, 450 Km are trunk routes (Major District Roads) and 117 Km are the urban roads (in Port Blair).

Andaman and Nicobar Islands receive plenty of rain precipitation to the tune of 3100mm a year on an average. Therefore the basic source of water is through collection of rain water in natural reservoirs and by constructing small checks Dams/ weirs. The water thus stored is used for maintaining the water supply all through the year.

In few Islands like Neil, Car Nicobar, Long Island etc., shallow wells have been dug to supply the water. In most of the other Islands, perennial spring water sources are also tapped in order to supply water to the local populace after giving treatment. In Chowra Island, a sea water desalination plant has been installed on experimental basis. In Port Blair, Havelock, Diglipur, Mayabunder, Rangat, Bakultala, Bambooflat, Kamorta & Campbell bay etc., regular water treatment plants are functioning for supplying water after giving due treatment along with filtration.

APWD provides bulk water supply to Port Blair Municipal Council(PBMC), which in turn distributes water to the areas under its jurisdiction. For the remaining areas, treatment and the distribution of water supply is handled by APWD, tapping from a large number of individual small schemes / sources.

Main water sources for Port Blair are Dhanikhari and Jawahar Sarovar Reservoirs. In Urban Water Supply sub-sector, APWD supplies water to PBMC after treatment in the treatment plants situated at Lambaline and Dairy Farm. The Lambaline treatment plant is basically a Rapid Sand Filtration plant commissioned in 1973 with a capacity of 16031 MT per day. The other treatment plant with slow sand filter beds is located at Diary Farm which was commissioned in 1954 and has a treatment capacity of 2992 MT per day. This plant treats water mainly from the Jawahar Sarovar reservoir. Another Slow Sand filter plant with installed capacity of 1816 MT per day is functioning at Garacharama Sub Urban area. During 2003-04, Dilthaman Tank as well as Nayagaon and Chakkargaon diggies have also been revived. A Slow Sand treatment plant has also been constructed to treat water from the Nayagaon & Chakkargaon Diggies. These two schemes contribute about 6,00,000 liters per day.

The ever increasing demand of water for the Port Blair Urban area will be met by following options:-

To further enhance the supply of water to Port Blair city and entire South Andaman Islands, Flat Bay scheme is under active consideration. This scheme involves conversion of part of Flat Bay area into fresh water lake by constructing an embankment. It will meet the requirements of water for Port Blair city and adjoining areas for next about 50 years. There is also a proposal to tap water from Rutland Island to the long term demand of Port Blair city. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has carried out survey/Investigation and identified few areas having ground water potential.

By adoption of the above measures, problems presently being faced by the people during the dry season will be mitigated. Adequate distribution and water treatment systems are also being planned.

For rural water supply, efforts are being made to augment the same. Out of total 502 villages, 344 villages have been provided with piped water supply. The remaining villages are proposed to be covered during 10th five year plan. Improvement of water supply in Rangat, Nimbutala, Dasarathpur & other adjoining areas has been undertaken by tapping water from Panchavati River source. Phase-I of this scheme has already been completed during 2003-04. One work on Kamsarat Nallah water supply scheme has been taken up in South Andaman area.

Under schemes recommended by Central Ground Water Board, augmentation of water has already yielded water much to the comfort of the people of Badamash Pahar, Dollygunj and Austinabad areas.

Sewerage System : Capital

Presently there is no underground sewerage system. Therefore, the human waste disposal is done mainly through individual septic tanks and other domestic effluent is directly discharged into the sea through surface drains. Being hilly terrain, it becomes technically difficult to provide a classical underground piped sewerage system in these Islands. However, renowned consultants viz. M/s WAPCOS, a Govt. of India undertaking have been entrusted to prepare a Detailed Project Report after carrying out a detailed survey, planning as well as cost estimation. Being a large project, implementation of the sewerage scheme will be taken up in phases after the proposal is approved by the Govt. of India.

With the growing demand in air-traffic and A&N Islands being considered as tourist destination in World Tour Map, the significance of this airport has increased to a great extent. Therefore, to meet the enhanced requirement, extension of the airstrip has been carried out from the original 6000 feet to 11000 feet by APWD. Work is almost completed. With the increased runway length, the airport will enable the bigger size Aeroplanes such as Airbus A-300 etc., to operate safely. This will tremendously boost tourism activities including international tourism in these Islands. This will certainly open up new vistas of self employment opportunities to Island youth and private entrepreneurs.

The perfect execution of the project is the feather in the cap of the Department .The Air strip had been tested for all required International standards and was found to be at per standard quality norms.

Apart from the extension of runway, APWD has constructed a number of Bituminous concrete helipads in various islands for the inland helicopter service. These helipads are being maintained by the APWD. Few more Helipads will be constructed as per the proposal by the concerned authorities of the Administration.

^* The Airstrip itself is used as Helipad.

Under this sector, construction and maintenance of Andaman Bhawan in Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi has been done facilitating commuting people of these Islands. For Vishakhapatanam, construction of transit accommodation for ship passengers is being planned. Construction of New Guest Houses and maintenance of existing ones in different Islands are being looked after on continual basis. Apart from this, providing technology support for investigation and testing of construction materials for the department and outside agencies, research and development activities for buildings and other civil construction materials, upgrading the existing laboratories and establishing new regional laboratory at Rangat, Campbell Bay and Car Nicobar, training of Engineers and personnel of APWD in mainland as well as Port Blair has been taken up.

The department has a full fledged central laboratory which is currently performing following tests for General Preliminary Investigation, Technology support and Quality Control measures for various works in building construction and roads.

A & N Islands lie in the highest earthquake prone map of Zone-V. APWD is having full technical competence as well as experience in Planning, Design and Construction of Earthquake resistant structures. A large number of Engineers at all levels have already been trained to design the structures following latest codal provisions of IS 456-2000, CPWD specification 2002, seismic codes and other relevant building construction techniques. Almost all Architectural and Structural designs are being done in-house. Computer aided design is being done extensively. The Architect Unit is being made fully computerized for efficient planning, drawing and detailing.

The department has taken one more stride by developing budget monitoring software (Being called as Budworks) which is currently at experimental stage.

APWD executes the construction of Minor Irrigation Projects and for Minor Irrigation and flood control. One Executive Engineer is on deputation to APWD from Central Water Commission, New Delhi to deliver the specific and specialised needs in this sector.

A number of minor irrigation schemes have been identified by APWD, two of which have been completed and few other are being taken up.

The following schemes have recently been completed

The other main Minor Irrigation schemes under active consideration are:-

The coast line of A &N islands is about 1964 KM. Under the anti-sea erosion scheme, about 800m of sea wall was constructed during the 8th plan and 3950 m of cement concrete sea wall was constructed during 9th plan. In the 10th plan about 12250 m of sea wall is proposed to be constructed.

It is also proposed to avail funding under the National Coastal Protection Project, for which the coastal data in the format prescribed by the CWPRS, Pune is being collected.