Bhubaneswar, March 14: The state housing and urban development department has pledged to ensure drinking water for all by 2020.

At a workshop held here today, the housing and urban development department officials decided to come up with a roadmap to ensure piped water connection to every household.

"The department has drawn up an ambitious plan for investment of Rs 4,380 crore. An array of projects across the state will ensure provision of at least 70 litres of water per capita per day and subsequently increase the same to 135 litres. The 24x7 water supply will also be ensured in the near future," said housing and urban development department minister Pushpendra Singhdeo.

The minister said that a number of drinking water projects had already been taken up under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme and under the state budget in the capital city.

At present, the city administration has piped drinking water connection in 33 out of 67 wards under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area, while the remaining wards are partially covered.

According to a plan prepared by the public health engineering organisation, Rs 18.7 crore will be spent for the improvement and provision of piped water connection at Unit-IX. About Rs 1.2 crore will be spent to do the same in Palasuni.

A sewage treatment plant will be set up at a cost of Rs 4.95 crore. However, the location will be decided shortly. Similarly, the officials will install water meters in houses at Unit-I, Unit-III, Unit-IV, Unit-IX, Old Town, Saheed Nagar, Rental Colony in Nayapalli, Chandraskeharpur and Ghatikia. An amount of Rs 86.86 crore will be spent in the process. The aim is to reduce the amount of non-revenue water.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who presided over the workshop as the chief guest, said that the Odisha State Urban Water Supply Policy 2013 envisaged that all households should have access to water through direct pipe connection and the urban poor should receive all the facilities available to other residents at an affordable cost.

Patnaik, along with other top officials, had also distributed appointment letters to 132 newly recruited executive engineers in different offices, including housing and urban development department, rural water supply and sanitation and rural development department today.