Kerala: Drinking water in four panchayats

KOCHI: Even as a severe drought stares at the state, Jalanidhi in association with Kerala Water Authority has embarked on implementing an ambitious drinking water project for four panchayats around the airport at a cost of Rs 127 crore with the support of Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) and Anwar Sadath MLA. The beneficiary panchayats of the project are Nedumbassery, Chengamanad, Kanjoor and Sreemolanagaram.

The tripartite agreement for the project was signed between the panchayat presidents, KWA managing director A Shyna Mol and Jalanidhi executive director Tinku Biswal in the presence of Additional chief secretary (Water Resources) and CIAL managing director V.J. Kurien and Anwar Sadath MLA on Saturday. A total of 30,000 houses in these four panchayats will benefit from this project which is being implemented with the funding of World Bank to the tune of 75 percent of the cost of the project. According to a CIAL official, the contribution of CIAL for it is roughly estimated to be Rs 3 crore.               

The project is to be implemented in 22 months and its commissioning is set to happen on Nov 1, 2018. Out of the  Rs 127 crore, the total component for the network system in the panchayats come to Rs 67 crore while the general overall components consume Rs 60 crore. The beneficiary houses will have to contribute 10 percent while panchayats have to give 15 percent of their network cost to which CIAL and the local MLA are expected to contribute. Existing KWA consumers have been exempted from this. The panchayats contribution is estimated to be Rs 10.05 crore.