New Drinking Water Projects To Come Up In Three Urban Mining Areas

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has approved the proposals of the Housing and Urban Development Department for setting up four new drinking water projects in three urban mining areas from the Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC) fund.

The decision to approve the project was taken at a high-level review meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday.

The total estimated cost of these four projects is Rs 193.66 crore. Of these four projects, two projects would be set up in Jharsuguda town at a cost of Rs 133.66 crore and one project each at Koraput town and Rairangpur at a cost of Rs 35 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively.

Present at the meeting, CEO of OMBADC, Uma Nanduri spoke about the requirement of the proposed projects.

The Chief Secretary asked the department concerned to expedite the project work during this summer.

The meeting deliberated on digging up of ponds and water bodies in water-scarce mountain areas with OMBADC fund. Padhi directed the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department to prepare specific project proposal on the technical feasibility and work plan to take up the aforesaid works.

It was revealed that so far, a total of 248 drinking water projects in the mining areas have been approved by the state government of which 41 projects have been completed, while 140 are in various stages of construction.

Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, principal secretary, Panchayati Raj, Deoranjan Kumar Singh, secretary, Housing and Urban Development G Mathivathanan, special secretary Prem Kumar Jha and senior officials of concerned departments were present at the meeting.