Residents of five towns in the state — Buxar, Hajipur, Munger, Begusarai and Rajgir — would soon get round-the-clock water supply like their counterparts in Patna.

Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) has planned to develop the 24x7 water supply projects in the towns.

A senior BUIDCo officer told The Telegraph: “The corporation is getting detailed project reports prepared for the water supply projects in the five towns. This will allow BUIDCo to get funds for the projects from the Centre and the state government.”

He added: “The state urban development department has prepared city development plans for 28 towns in the state. The water supply projects would help in the execution of the city-development plans.”

Sources said the detailed project reports would take into account the sources of water supply (ground or surface), length of water supply pipelines required, necessary maintenance measures and cost components. These projects are likely to be funded under centrally-sponsored programmes like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission or development plans of the state government.

The officer said: “We have already received the no-objection certificates (NoCs) from the five towns. Letters have been sent to another 23 towns seeking NoCs. We plan to prepare detailed project reports for water supply and sanitation projects for all the 28 urban local bodies by January 2013 for which the city-development plans have been prepared.”

He added: “We intend to implement most of these project by 2015.”

According to the city-development plan for Begusarai, the civic body and the public health engineering department are responsible for supply and maintenance of water supply in the municipal area. Ground water is the main source of water in the town, around 125km east of Patna. It is pumped through tubewells and stored in overhead tanks. At present, the supply of potable water in Begusarai is around 2.73MLD, which is much lower than the projected requirement of 39MLD till the year 2030.

The city-development plan for Hajipur states that the total potable water demand for the city at present is being met mainly by underground water source. The existing tubewells in the town, 20km north of Patna, are in good condition and yield up to 1.28MLD daily.

The water supply system for Munger was designed in 1909. The civic body and the public health engineering department maintain it.

The water supply system for the town, around 175km east of Patna, is based on surface sources from the Ganga. The existing system is decentralised with seven overhead tanks supplying water to covering 46.23 per cent of the households. The average duration of supply in Munger is about six hours per day. The residents also rely on other water sources like handpumps, wells and tubewells.