Siliguri, March 23: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) has started supplying drinking water to five of its 14 added wards, with a promise of covering the remaining ones by the end of this year.

The wards, the water supply for which was inaugurated today by Asok Bhattacharya, the Bengal urban development and municipal affairs minister, at Shaktigarh, are from 31 to 35.

“The SMC will supply water to the other added wards — that is from 36 to 44 — before Durga Puja,” said Bhattacharya.

The project — implemented with technical support from the Public Health Engineering department at a cost of Rs 7 crore — will help more than one lakh residents of the five wards. Joy Chakraborty, the member mayor-in-council (water), said unavailability of land was the reason for taking almost a decade for supplying water to the wards.

Mayor Bikash Ghosh said 9.54 million litres of water would be pumped through one ground level reservoir and two overhead reservoirs every day.