The Cabinet today approved the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for operations and maintenance of large multi-village surface water supply schemes across the state.
The move aims at ensuring supply of potable water on a long term sustainable basis in rural areas of water quality-affected districts. This first-of-its-kind SPV in India will be a utility company, Punjab Rural Water (Utility) Company, under the Water supply and sanitation Department.
The Cabinet also accorded approval to opening an account in the name of the SPV, with seed of Rs 25 crore allocated from the World Bank funds (64 per cent) and state budget (36 per cent), to support its functioning in the initial five years of operations. The allocation will help meet the shortfall in revenue collection, if any, to fulfil the contractual obligations of the SPV and its administrative expenses.