By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 4, 2016 : Odisha Government will invest Rs 700 crore to develop water supply infrastructure in both urban and rural areas of the state, officials said here.

Chairing over a high level meeting chief minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the progress on water supply infrastructure in the state.

As per a report tabled in the meeting, while there are 4,32,309 spot sources and 9533 piped water projects functional in rural areas of the state, there are 33,191 tube wells and piped water projects active in urban areas.

It was also revealed that 1100 tankers have been deployed to avoid acute water scarcity and over 700 mobile vans have been pressed into service to repair defunct tube wells in rural areas of the state. Similarly, 595 tankers along with 1279 syntex tanks have been engaged to meet the water requirements in urban areas. 58 new tube wells are also being set up in urban areas.

Further, work has been completed on 1370 new tube wells while 27,000 tube wells are still under construction in villages that have partial availability of drinking water facilities.

Earlier, the government had decided to give focus on drinking water supply while spending the grants of fourth State Finance Commission and 14th Central Finance Commission. Besides, all the unutilised funds of previous finance commissions will also be utilised to develop water supply infrastructure.