Business Standard 21.09.2010
Survey completed for Rs 945-crore sanitation projectThe preliminary survey has been completed for the Rs 945-crore 'Orissa Integrated Sanitation Improvement Project' to be executed in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
According to the survey, three sewerage treatment plants would be installed at Cuttack and a network of 321 km of sewerage lines would be laid which would have a pumping capacity of 45 million litres per day (MLD).
Similarly, six sewerage treatment plants would come up in Bhubaneswar and 180 km of sewerage lines would be laid with a combined pumping capacity of 50 MLD.
The state Chief Secretary B K Pattnaik on Saturday reviewed the progress of the project. The additional development commissioner R N Senapati; finance secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra; principal secretary (housing and urban development) Arun Panda; water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra; secretary (revenue and disaster management) R K Sharma and the Cuttack district collector Kishore Mohanty were present at the meeting.
It has been decided to constitute a small monitoring committee to oversee the implementation of the 'Integrated Sanitation Improvement Project'. This committee would have officials from the departments of water resources and housing and urban development as well as from railways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and JICA.
The implementation schedule of the project is from December 2009 to February 2015.
The executing agency for the project is the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board. The onus of operations and maintenance will be on Public Health Engineering Organization (PHEO), Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation (BMC).
This project requires land acquisition of 48 hectares. The project site is not located in and around an sensitive areas such as national parks, and it is likely to have a minimal adverse impact on the natural environment.
In this project, it is planned to implement measures for the operation and maintenance organization that will include reduction of the unaccounted for water, restructuring of the tariff system, financial improvement, human resources development, strengthening of public relations and public awareness activities and participation of the private sector.
