The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday gave the approval for the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the operation and maintenance of large multi-village surface water supply schemes across the State in a bid to ensure sustainably long-term supply of potable water in rural areas of districts where water quality has been adversely affected.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
This first such SPV in India will be a utility company, the ‘Punjab Rural Water (Utility) Company’, under the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, said an official statement.
The CM also approved the opening of an account in the name of the SPV, with seed money of ₹25 crore allocated from The World Bank’s funds (64%) and the State budget (36%). The will support the SPV’s functioning in the initial five years of its operations.
The allocation will help meet the shortfall in revenue collection, if any, to fulfil contractual obligations of the SPV, and its administrative expenses, added the statement.
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 Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.
The Cabinet also gave the formal approval for the transformation of Malerkotla town as the 23rd District of the State, as announced earlier by the Chief Minister. Malerkotla district would consist of three sub-divisions, that is, Malerkotla, Ahmedgarh and Amargarh. In all, 192 villages, 62 patwari circles and six kanungo circles will be included in Malerkotla district, added the statement.
