Shillong: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma has announced a new water supply scheme for Tura town of West Garo Hills to ease the water woes faced by its residents.

At a meeting held on Saturday evening in Tura, Conrad announced the laying of the new primary feeder main under Tura Phase I and II water supply scheme.

The project is estimated to cost around Rs 35 crore and is being funded by the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) of the Union DoNER ministry.

The project is scheduled to be completed by March 2020. On completion of the project, 23.42 million# litres per day (MLD) of drinking water would be available for Tura, sufficient for 1.8 lakh population of the town.

Conrad said, "The picture of young children filling their pots from public taps and from nearby streams has motivated us to make a difference to the lives of our people. When we took over the government, we decided that we will ensure and tackle the problem of water crisis."

He said similar projects would be undertaken in different parts of the state in phases.

Conrad said the Centre, under the NESIDS, has sanctioned Rs 190 crore to Meghalaya, of which, Rs 60 crore has been accorded to the public health engineering department, Rs 50 crore each to the public works department and power department and Rs 20 core to the health department.