Patna, Dec 21 : The Urban and Housing Development Ministry of Bihar has claimed that it will provide tap water to every household in 30 cities in the next three months.
Providing tap water to every household is an ambitious project of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and it has also been included in the ‘Saat Nishchay Progamme’ of the state government.
A senior official from the ministry, on condition of anonymity, told IANS that connecting pipelines to every household was part of the ‘Saat Nishchay Programme’ during the previous tenure of the Nitish Kumar government.
“The deadline of the project was December 2020, however, installation of pipelines in some of the cities is still underway.It is expected that it will be completed by March 2021,” he said.
The delay in connecting the pipelines happened as it was very difficult to replace the old pipelines with the new ones in some cities like Patna, Muzaffarpur, Gaya as they are ancient and developed in an unplanned way, the official added.
Citing the problem in Muzaffarpur, the official said that earlier the proposal was to complete the project in Rs 98 crore but the amount was not adequate so the authority has released more funds now.“The proposal is to complete 18 overhead water tanks and 95 pump houses and the company has been asked to complete the project in the given timeframe,” he said.
According to the data available with IANS, there are 10,021 houses in Arrah, 21,524 in Bagaha, 24,000 in Biharsharif, 14,135 in Hajipur, 4,900 in Jahanabad, 6,320 in Kishanganj, 15,751 in Motihari and 6,722 in Sasaram where the installation of water pipelines has either been completed or is underway.
The official said that Rs 37.17 crore has been sanctioned for Siwan, Rs 56.25 for Chapra and Rs 59.30 crore for Jamalpur city for installation of pipelines and construction of overhead water tanks as well as booster stations.
The total cost of the project is Rs 2,184 crore.Besides, a storm water drainage programme is simultaneously underway in these cities at a cost of Rs 182.34 crore.
The official said that a proposal from the state’s Urban and Housing Development Ministry was sent to the Chief Minister’s Office on Monday seeking approval to develop 70 city panchayats to streamline the execution of civic infrastructure like roads, water supply, power supply, street lights etc.
The Bihar Urban and Housing Development Ministry is bearing only 11 per cent of the total cost while the Centre is contributing the rest of the amount
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