Punjab to set up utility firm to supply water to rural areas

Punjab Polity and Governance

The Cabinet approved the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for operations and maintenance of large multi-village surface water supply schemes across the state.
The move aims at ensuring supply of potable water on a long-term sustainable basis in rural areas of water quality-affected districts.
This first-of-its-kind SPV in India will be a utility company, “Punjab Rural Water (Utility) Company”, under the Water Supply and Sanitation Department.
Chaired by CM Capt Amarinder Singh, the Cabinet, at a virtual meeting, also accorded approval to opening an account in the name of the SPV, with seed money of Rs 25 crore allocated from the World Bank funds (64 per cent) and state budget (36 per cent), to support its functioning in the initial five years of operations. The allocation will help meet the shortfall in revenue collection, if any, to fulfil the contractual obligations of the SPV and its administrative expenses.
The Water Supply and Sanitation Department is currently in the process of executing five new multi-village surface water supply projects covering 612 villages of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts, and another project covering 408 villages in the fluoride-affected blocks of districts Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib. These projects are under construction.