The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has signed an agreement with the Union Government to provide about Rs 1,535-crore Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan for the Phase II of the Odisha Integrated Sanitation Improvement Project.
According to a release, the JICA provides ODA loans at 0.3 per cent interest rate for a repayment period of long 40 years, including 10 years of grace period. For the Phase I, it had signed agreement to provide Rs756 crore.
With this loan, the cumulative loan amount for this project now inceased to 44,857 million Japanese Yen. The assistance is to provide reliable sewerage service in Bhubaneswar, and sewerage and storm water drainage service in Cuttack by constructing and improving the sewerage and drainage facilities and by supporting capacity building of related agencies, thereby improving sanitary conditions of the residents including the poor in the concerned areas and improving water quality of surrounded rivers.
JICA’s assistance is meant to support construction of sewerage system which includes construction of three Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs), with total capacity of 100 Million liter per Day (MlD). Of these, two STPs in Cuttack are designed to treat all domestic wastewater generated within Cuttack municipal area and one STP in Bhubaneswar is designed to treat domestic wastewater generated within Bhubaneswar. The assistance also includes extensive sewer networks (nearly 700 kms) in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, as well as improvement of drainage system (more than 20 kms) in Cuttack.