Cuttack: The Rs 34-crore project involving replacement of old drinking water supply pipelines in the city, which is running behind schedule, is nearing completion.

Around 95 per cent of the project has been completed and the remaining work is expected to be finished by the end of next month.

On July 31, 2016, chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for the project to address the problem of old, rusted or leaking water distribution pipelines that lead to contamination of drinking water, putting health at risk.

The replacement project was taken up after a month along with a survey of the existing pipelines.

The project was undertaken to replace around 98.65 kilometres of pipelines, especially in the old parts or core areas in wards 1 to 35 within the limits of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation where most of the pipelines have long outlived their service period.

Initially, the project was targeted to be completed by September 2017.

Officials of the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) said there was delay in meeting the September deadline as time was lost due to the laying of sewer lines under the Japan International Co-Operation Agency (Jica) funded integrated sanitation project in some of the targeted areas.

Besides, the order of the district administration to stop digging of roads for Dussehra last year came as a hindrance. Replacement work remained suspended from September 20 till October 1 for Dussehra.

However, PHEO (Cuttack division) executive engineer Sushant Ghadei told The Telegraph on Monday that nearly 94 kilometres of pipelines have been replaced.

"We expect to complete the old pipeline replacement project by end of March," Ghadei said.

Bangali Sahi resident Gokulananda Patnaik said: "Jaundice outbreaks continue as replacing of pipelines was limited to the affected pockets only. We hope that the ongoing major project to fix all leaking and corroding pipelines in the city will bring about a permanent solution to the problem."