The government of Bengal will set up eight mineral water plant that will called as “Pran Dhara” across the state including various districts that will produce and supply safe bottled drinking water. This project will be executed by the state PHE (public health and engineering) department.
Subrata Mukherjee (State PHE minister) said that private agencies will be hired to sell bottled water once the water manufacturing plants are set up and start functioning. He also added that, “The government will maintain the plants.”
A detailed project report is prepared by The authorities for setting up first 8 plants. These mineral water plants will be set up in South 24-Parganas, Malda, Cooch Behar and in the townships of Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas, Siliguri, Purbasthali in Burdwan, Haringhata in Nadia and Lalbag in Murshidabad. The estimation for this project is around 42.82 crore.
In the first step, the plants of Purbasthali, Lalbag and Haringhata will be set up. The authorities have already started working on the mandatory infrastructure for the plants. The other remaining plants will be set up in the second step.
West Bengal’s all state departments, government undertakings, local & urban bodies have been asked to prepare their daily needs as the bottled water will be supplied to all government offices too. The packaged water will be supplied at cheapest rates. Now , we can see 500ml and 1000ml bottled water in the market. The prices are followed by 7 Rs to 12 Rs per unit.
According to government numbers, a total of 271 water supply schemes have been sanctioned to provide drinking water covering a population of more than 62 lac across West Bengal between May 2011 & March 2013. The percentage to cover the rural population through piped water facility have been increased up to 5% during the same period. Also, about 19,000 water supply sources were created during this period.
Government is trying their best to provide pure water facility to valuable project.
