ADB sanctions funds for three drinking water projects

The Asian Development Bank has sanctioned Rs 2,016 crore for funding three projects on drinking water supply in West Bengal, Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said today.
During the day he met ADB officials who have cleared the project.
Under the ADB-funded projects, a drinking water supply project will be taken up in Haroa and Rajarhat under which they will take water from the Ganga, remove the pollutants like arsenic, fluoride, etc to make it potable water, Mukherjee said on the sidelines of an interactive session at Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
The second one in Bankura will use water collected from DVC reservoir while the third one will be a piped water supply project in Nandigram.

Besides this, the government is also in talk with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for funding 90 projects related to supply of drinking water in Purulia district.
"There are 90 projects in 20 blocks of Purulia for which we are talking with JICA. They have agreed initially and we have to go to Japan in November for final talks," Mukherjee said.

This project is also worth about Rs 2000 crore under which they are planning to install subversive pumps as rivers are not perennial.
The DPR will be ready by the end of this year, he said.
Attacking the Centre, he said earlier they used to get funds from Delhi for projects like Gram Sadak Yojna but now they will have to shell out 40 per cent of the cost.

"We are raising this issue and will continue raising this issue. This is damaging rural development," Mukherjee said.