The construction of a large-scale drinking water project has begun in Hetauda with an investment of Rs160 million.

Under the project, works began on Tuesday on four water tanks in various parts of the city and four deep-boring plants in Wards 7, 8 and 10 of Hetauda Sub-Metropolis.

The federal government has contributed 70 percent of the project cost with the Hetauda Water Supply Management Board and Sub-metropolis covering the remaining cost of the project. Nandalal Banjade, chief at the project, said that the construction work of the project would be completed within two years.

According to him, a water tank and a boring plant will be built at TCN, an overground (above the ground) tank in Rudreshwor, Harikunjroad and Bhorle.

Sudarshan Dhakal, executive director of the board, informed that the four water tanks together could hold around 1.95 million litres of water. “Four deep boring plants can produce up to 2.5 million litres of water daily,” he said.

Currently, the board has been supplying around 1.36 million litres of water to over 17,000 households each day.

“We have been supplying water for around seven hours a day for every household. We will increase the supply hours once the project is completed,” said Dhakal.

The Hetauda Drinking Water Supply Board took over the Hetauda branch of Nepal Water Supply Corporation five years ago.

Hari Bahadur Mahat, mayor of Hetauda Sub-metropolis, said that the metropolis plans to install modern filters to purify groundwater.

“We have plans to set aside a budget to install a filtration mechanism to purify water at the source,” said Mahat.