Bhubaneswar: The Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) of the state government has signed an agreement with Spectro Analytical Labs Ltd Monday for setting up of nine water testing laboratories at eight places across the state.
The agreement was signed in presence of housing and urban development minister Puspendra Singh Deo.
After outbreak of jaundice, which claimed over 30 lives last year, the state government had taken a decision to set up nine modern water testing laboratories at eight places in the state on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
While a state-level laboratory would be set up in the Capital, divisional laboratories would be set up at Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, Baripada, Rourkela and Sambalpur, Singh Deo said.
The state government would provide 800 sq ft of land at free of cost to set up the divisional labs while for the state-level lab, government would provide 5,000 sq ft space at the water treatment plant building at Palasuni here.
The state-of-the-art labs can detect all kinds of viruses present in water and the ones which contaminate the water, he stated.
The Orissa State Urban Water Supply Policy-2013 mandated the PHEO to undertake the establishment and maintenance of advanced laboratories for testing and quality monitoring of water and wastewater. “Accordingly, the government is setting up these labs, which would start functioning in the coming six months,” the minister added.
Over Rs 66 crore would be spent for establishment, operation and maintenance of the laboratories for a period of 10 years, said an official of PHEO, adding, “The private player has agreed to provide 10 per cent of the total cost.”
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