Rs 2,200-crore water project launched

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 17

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal launched the second World Bank (WB)-funded ‘Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Sector Improvement Project’ worth Rs 2,200 crore here today. The project is aimed at improving water and sanitation services across the state.

In his inaugural address, Badal thanked the World Bank, especially its Country Director Onno Ruhl, for getting this project sanctioned much before the closure of the earlier project costing Rs 750 crore.

The Chief Minister said he was hopeful that the project would be completed two years ahead of the deadline of 2019 fixed by the Government of India under ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. He said the focus of the new project was to provide toilets and water connection in all households within the next three years. 

All existing rural water supply schemes would be augmented to provide 70 litre per capita per day (lpcd) against the current consumption of 40 lpcd. Villages would have an access to a minimum of 10-hour water supply, he said. He said the other main objective of the project was to do away with ‘open defecation’ at certain places.