KENDRAPADA: With elections a few months away, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had a sop for people of salinity-ingressed villages in Kendrapada district. On Saturday, he laid the foundation stone for a Rs 241-crore project in Mahakalapada block’s Sarumuhi village to alleviate drinking water problems. The project expected to be completed in two years will supply water to 148 villages in 26 gram panchayats of Mahakalapada block and 52 villages in 16 gram panchayats of Marsaghai block. “It will benefit 2.36 lakh people,” said Naveen.The project will provide 25 million litres of drinking water from rivers Luna and Chitrotola after proper treatment in the two plants at Jadupur and Manikunda, added the chief minister. Altogether 28 overhead water tanks and six underground reservoirs will be built and around 150-km of water pipelines will be laid, he added.The chief minister also announced that the government will build a riverine port on the Mahanadi at Akhadasali on public-private-partnership mode in Mahakalapada block. Local youths will get jobs in the port and villages in adjoining areas would be developed, Naveen said.Mahakalapada MLA Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak , in his address, said saline ingress is increasing in the coastal areas due to increasing pressure on ground water. “We are happy that the chief minister laid the foundation stone for drinking water projects to provide water in many villages,” he said.Funds for the project has been sanctioned and L&T will soon start work. “We will not only purify the water but also supply it to homes through pipelines,” said agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy.Salinity is a huge problem in these seaside villages for which many people get salty water through tubewells. “We hope the proposed water pipeline project will solve the perennial problem of groundwater salinity in these areas,” said principal secretary, panchayati raj and drinking water, Deoranjan Kumar Singh.The meeting was also addressed by Patkura MLA Bedaprakash Agrawala, Kendrapada MLA Kishor Tarei, Rajya Sabha member Pratap Dev and district collector Dasarathi Satapathy. Around 10,000 people were present at the meeting.

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