BHUBANESWAR: After a gap of over two months, Odisha Government has decided to restart work on 66 ongoing mega water supply projects and about 6,000 other piped water projects which had come to a standstill because of the lockdown.
The Government plans to spend around `20,000 crore to expedite these projects. However, the Government has not clarified how to raise such a huge amount of funds when the economy of the State has taken a big hit due to the pandemic.
The decision to expedite the projects, which are lying incomplete since the last four to five years, was taken at a meeting recently chaired by Panchayatiraj Minister Pratap Jena.
“Our aim is to provide piped drinking water to all households. In the meeting, we discussed how that can be expedited,” he said.
The meeting also discussed launching of new projects in areas which do not have drinking water supply and where people are facing difficulties. The Government had set a target to ensure piped water supply to all rural households by 2024-25.
Official sources said 19,504 out of total 47,306 villages in the State have been supplied with piped drinking water. As per an estimate, 1.17 lakh out of 1.56 lakh villages, including hamlets, did not have piped water supply. Besides, there are places where projects started over 10 years back are also yet to be completed. The Government had targeted to complete 1,716 piped water projects under BASUDHA, NRDWP and RIDF in the current financial year. However, in many districts work is yet to be started.
Sources maintained that an estimate of `13,180 crore has been made for the 66 mega drinking water projects. Funds sanctioned by Fourteenth Finance Commission and RIDF and several other schemes.