The government will set up eight bottling plants - to be called ‘Pran Dhara’ - across the state in different districts to produce and supply safe bottled drinking water. The project will be implemented by the state public health and engineering (PHE) department.
State PHE minister Subrata Mukherjee said that private agencies will be engaged to sell bottled water once the plants are set up and start functioning. “The government will maintain the plants,” he said.
The authorities have already prepared a detailed project report for setting up the eight plants. The plants will be set up in South 24-Parganas, Cooch Behar, Malda and in the townships of Siliguri, Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas, Purbasthali in Burdwan, Haringhata in Nadia and Lalbag in Murshidabad. The estimated project cost is about Rs 42.82 crore.
In the first phase, the plants at Haringhata, Purbasthali and Lalbag will be set up. The authorities are working on setting up the required infrastructure for the plants. The rest of the plants will be set up in the second phase.
All state government departments, government undertakings, urban and local bodies have been asked to prepare their daily requirement as the bottled water will be supplied to all government offices also.
The packaged water will be supplied at rates as cheap as possible. Bottled water is now available in the market in 500 ml and 1000 ml containers against a price of Rs 7 per unit and Rs 12 per unit respectively.
According to government figures, a total of 271 piped water supply schemes have been sanctioned to provide drinking water covering a population of more than 62 lakh across the state between May 2011 and March 2013.
The percentage to cover the rural population through piped water facility have been increased from 37.95 per cent to 42 per cent during the same period. Also, about 19,500 spot water supply sources have been created during the same period.
Close to the city, Hidco is also working on a bottled water plant, having a capacity of about 1000 litres per day, to provide drinking water at reasonable rates to people visiting the Eco Park, Rabindra Tirtha and other tourist attractions in Rajarhat New Town.
The state government had earlier planned to sell about 15 per cent of water from the 20-odd treatment plants across the state to bottled water manufacturers.
