ADB funds to flow into Agartala water pipelines

A project with funds provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would overhaul the entire 53-year-old water supply system in Tripura capital Agartala, officials said here Saturday.

"The ADB has recently sanctioned the Rs.130 crore project to replace the 408-km water supply pipelines, commissioned in 1960," Tripura's Urban Development Secretary Ashutosh Jindal told reporters.

He said the ADB assisted project would replace the water supply lines in the eastern, southern and middle zones of Agartala, while the works in the northern zone would be done under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The official said that the actual work of replacement of the water supply pipelines would start October-end or November.

The 142-year-old Agartala Municipal Council, which will implement the ADB project, is in the process of becoming a corporation.

The ADB-assisted North Eastern Region Urban Development Programme will be implemented in Shillong (Meghalaya), Aizawl (Mizoram), Kohima (Nagaland) and Gangtok (Sikkim) besides Agartala.

With a population of little over four lakh, capital Agartala was founded in 1838 by then king Maharaja Krishna Kishore Manikya (1830-49). Tripura was a princely state until its accession to India in October 1949.