BHUBANESWAR, Odisha: A team of 20-member led by Dr Ajay Nagbhushan, Urban Development Secretary and KP Mohan Raj, Managing Director of Karnataka Urban Water and Supply and Drainage Board, were in Odisha to understand the state’s Drink from Tap (DFT) programme.
DFT programme was inaugurated on July 1, 2021, in Puri Municipality to provide drinking water directly from the tap. Currently, upto 2.5 lakh people in Puri are using the tap water for drinking and cooking purposes. Under the mission, Bhubaneswar has been divided into zones and 10 zones out of a total of 98, have the supply of drinking water from the tap throughout the day. Similarly, Cuttack city as well has been divided into 14 zones under the DFT mission.
The project is expected to be completed in Brahmapur city by the August of 2023. The Government of Odisha however has set the target of covering 17 cities under the mission of December 2023.
The mission has been adopted by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. Thus, giving DFT mission a national level status. The team from Karnataka visited Odisha to understand the specification of the DFT mission and its technological, executive, operational, and outreach aspects. The team also had field sessions to observe the effectiveness of the scheme on the ground level.