Bhubaneswar, Nov. 22: The Centre's allocation of Rs 456 crore under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme has raised the hope for 24x7 water supply at nine cities in the state.

Out of the total allocation, Bhubaneswar will get approximately Rs 200 crore.

Experts said that after evaluating the supply level, loss and requirement of residents, the water supply department would expandthe system.

Housing and urban development minister Pushpendra Singh Deo said: "Issues pertaining to drinking water supply was initially under the smart city programme, but now as urban mobility and waste disposal will be taken care of under the project, drinking water will be dealt with exclusively through the Amrut scheme."

He said this on the sidelines of the national conference on recent trends in water supply and sanitation. The conference was organised by Indian Water Works Association, a national body of public health engineers.

"Under the Amrut scheme, civic issues will be dealt with at length. After providing drinking water, the issue of storm water drainage will be taken up. Besides Central help, monetary provision under the state budget will also be provided to improve the quality of drinking water supply in the city," the minister said.

Chief engineer Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) K.C. Sahu said: "More than Rs 800 crore will be needed to supply water to every corner of the city and provide meters to the household under the 24X7 water supply scheme."

A senior PHEO engineer also said that while providing meters in existing water supply areas would cost around Rs 200 crore, supplying water to the entire city would cost around Rs 600 crore under the Amrut scheme.

The engineer also added that the pilot project regarding round-the-clock water supply in Kharavela Nagar is getting delayed as selection of a tamper-proof meter system is still under way and the PHEO was not satisfied with the current models available in the market.

While activists working in the field of water supply and sanitation said that below 40 per cent of the city population is getting pipe water supply, the minister today claimed that more than 50 per cent is getting the same.

"Only several pockets on the city outskirts are not getting pipe water supply. We are going to change the old pipelines in phase-wise manner and for this budgetary provision will be made in the minister's conference shortly," Singh Deo said.

Krushna Sethi, a resident of Sundarpada area, said: "Development of housing colonies and water supply pipeline network has a great mismatch and the PHEO should work hard to execute its projects faster."