Work on the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded second phase of the Ranchi urban water supply scheme, which will benefit over 92,000 households in the city, will start from March 2020.

A high-level fact-finding team of ADB which had visited the Ranchi water supply project sites, along with sites of other urban infrastructure projects that they would be funding, between September 14 and 20, gave a presentation before the Jharkhand urban development department officials on Friday evening at Project Bhavan in Ranchi.

State urban development authority (Suda) director Ameet Kumar said the ADB team showed them the presentation on Friday on their findings, which they would submit to the Union finance ministry later this month.

“This will pave the way for loan negotiations for urban infrastructure projects. We hope to complete the loan negotiations and sign the loan agreement by January-February, and start the construction work in March after receiving the loan,” Kumar said.

The ADB will provide 70 per cent of the project cost as loan while the state government 30 per cent.

The ADB will give Rs 1,750 crore as loan for six urban infrastructure projects that includes the Ranchi water supply scheme, Kumar said, but the total cost of all the projects will be higher, including the state government’s money.

“We have started the tender process for some projects and after formally signing loan agreements, will issue work orders to the private contractors to get the work started,” Kumar added.

The six urban infrastructure projects to be funded by ADB includes the second phase of Ranchi water supply along with integrated drainage and sewerage project in Jugsalai and Mango (both

in Jamshedpur), integrated drainage and road projects in Dumka and Medininagar (Daltonganj, Palamau), and the urban water supply project in Hussainabad (also Palamau).

A source in Juidco said that the first phase of Ranchi water supply scheme — work on which is already underway — along with second phase will provide piped water supply in all the 53 wards under the Ranchi Municipal Corporation.

L&T has already started work on the Rs 290-crore first phase of the Ranchi urban water supply project (from February this year) which will see 14 water towers with 898km-long pipelines providing free water connections to 1.6 lakh households in 10 wards of RMC with a completion date of January 2021.

The Rs 756- crore second phase of the Ranchi water supply project will see ground level reservoirs with over 770km of pipelines laid. With a three-year deadline from when the work order is issued, the second phase will benefit over 92,000 households.

The Rs 377-crore integrated sewerage and drainage scheme at Mango will see a sewage treatment plant (STP) of 43 MLD capacity.

The Rs 92-crore Jugsalai integrated sewerage and drainage project will see an STP of 9 MLD.

The Dumka and Medininagar road and drainage projects are estimated to cost Rs 177 crore and Rs 282 crore, respectively. The Hussainabad water project will cost Rs 47 crore. All these projects will also have a deadline of three years from the work order.