Berhampur, Feb. 21: The irrigation department is acquiring land to enhance the water carrying capacity of the century-old Dakhinapur reservoir.

The department has already identified 108 acres, including 97.69 acres of private land, for the project. Some 58 acres have already been acquired, said Berhampur executive engineer (irrigation) B. C. Das.

Another official said that they were planning to acquire the remaining land shortly.

"There are two reservoirs at Dakhinapur on the outskirts of Berhampur. There is a proposal to construct an additional reservoir. We have got administrative approval for the project last month," Das said.

The irrigation department has handed over Rs 6 crore to the land acquisition officer for the purpose. Construction will start as soon as all the land is transferred to the irrigation department, he said.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for the project in Dakhinapur on February 2. The cost of the project has been estimated at more than Rs 25 crores.

Some 4.5 lakh residents of Berhampur require at least 50 million litres of water daily, but get only 37 million litres.

The city gets its drinking water from two sources - the Rushikulya Joint Water Supply Scheme and the Dakhinapur impounding reservoir. The Rushikulya project is expected to supply approximately 20 million litres of water daily while the remaining 30 million litres is supposed to come for Dakhinapur impounding reservoir.

The city's water supply system started in 1905 with a supply capacity of 2.724 million litres daily for 30,000 residents. It was augmented to 9.08 million litres in 1961.