Bhubaneswar: The civic body's ambitious water ATM project has failed to quench the thirst of the people here in the scorching summer because they have either been placed in unreachable areas or are lying dysfunctional.

City residents complained that many of the machines that dispense safe and cold drinking water have been installed in areas faraway from the reach of commuters and pedestrians. They also said that some machines lie either dry or dysfunctional as they never release water.

"It is a sheer waste of public money. The machine that has been installed near DAV Public School at Unit-VIII has served no purpose. I have never seen anyone coming to fetch water from this machine," said city resident and social worker Alok Kar.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation introduced the water ATM facility in August 2016. The corporation installed 40 such machines in various parts of the city by the end of 2016.

The aim of installing these machines was to provide cool and safe drinking water to commuters, pedestrians and the urban poor, especially during the peak summer months.

The civic body had spent Rs 4.93 crore on the project. Initially, it was decided that cards similar to those meant for bank ATMs would be used to fetch water. Each applicant would get cards of Rs 50. However, soon after the first machine was installed at Jharana Sahi, the corporation decided to make the service free.

Sources said that the decision to make the service free was taken since not many people applied for the cards. Soon after the service was made free, the civic body distributed 900 such cards to the people through special drives conducted mainly in slum areas.

"We have distributed the cards among 900 persons. But, we still did not get adequate users for the service. It is mainly due to the fact that people are not aware of the location of the machines. But, it is an important project and we need to organise awareness campaigns to get more users for the service," said a civic body official.

Saheed Nagar resident Janmejaya Mishra blamed the civic body for the failure of the service. "They do not have any vision for any project. They can't just plan and throw open such modern services without keeping in mind the concerns of the people," said Mishra, a retired government employee.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said that they would hold a discussion with officials to organise awareness campaigns for the water ATM service.

"We will look after the places of installation, and if necessary, we will move the machines to more usable places," said Jena.