The Kurseong municipality has received the final approval from the state government for the implementation of the drinking water project in the hill town.

The project will be taken up under the Centre's Amrut 2.0 (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme, with an estimated project cost is ₹209.30 crore. The state will pay the bulk of the amount.

On Tuesday, Brigen Gurung, the chairman of the board of administrators (BoA) of the civic body, said: “We have received final approval for the drinking water project from the state. The tender process will be initiated by the state municipal engineering directorate next month. The plan is to finish the project in two years.”

Kurseong, some 45km from Siliguri and dubbed the "Land of White Orchid", has 20 municipal wards with a population of around 42,000.

For years, residents of the town had been facing inconveniences due to a paucity of drinking water supply. Most residents buy water to meet their daily needs.

According to the plan, water will be drawn from the Balason river through pumping stations, which will come up at the Ambootia tea estate and the Singell tea estate.

The water will be taken to a reservoir in the Deer Park area for storage and will be routed through the treatment plan that will come up at the Murdahati area of the town. After treatment, it will be distributed in the wards through a network of pipelines.

“The water will be drawn from Balason through a 14km dual pipeline. There will be three pumping stations, one in Ambootia and two in Singell, which will draw the water. The main reservoir will come up near the Deer Park,” Subhash Pradhan, vice-chairman of the BoA of the municipality, said.

The civic body, sources said, is spending ₹77 lakh to renovate an old reservoir at the Deer Park. “It has a capacity of 21 million litres. A new 27-million-litre reservoir will come up near it too,” said a source.