The Rajasthan government and a private company have signed a fresh agreement under the 'Jeevan Amrit Project', in which 333 RO plants will be installed in over 800 villages of the district in next three financial years, including the current year.
Cairn India signed an MoU with PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) on January 7.
"All these 333 RO plants to be installed in these 3 years will not have ATM technology, but depending upon the conditions and understanding among the stakeholders, this model would continue to be installed in the habitations," said CSR Head of Cairn India Manoj Aggarwal.
Under Cairn India's "Jeevan Amrit Project," kiosks with reverse osmosis (RO) plants have been installed to provide safe drinking water in some villages in Rajasthan.
He said that the model was conceptualised keeping in mind some difficult areas in order to ensure 24x7 availability of quality drinking water in the highly water-starved areas.
"With 44 plants installed in past two years, we have installed 36 plants with ATM based technology," he said.
Referring to the current MoU, he said that of these 33 plants, 70 will be installed in the current financial year while 200 in 2016-17 and the remaining in 2017-18.
"The ATM technology will be provided appropriately in order to increase the distribution reach to the wider area," he added.
According to a PHED official, the concept was mulled with a view to ensure availability of drinking water 24x7 in the habitations with acute shortage of drinking water.
"Though, we have been installing RO plants in every water-starved habitation but given the exigency in some areas, like less availability of water compared to other areas and willingness of the local people seeking water availability for 24 hours, we struck upon this ATM kind of technology," said the official.
After successful trial-run of the plant for three months by the company, it will be handed over to the PHED for operation and maintenance, for which the department will provide land, electricity and raw water.
