The entire amount will be spent on laying a 64-inch water main pipe from Palta, the water production centre, to Tallah pumping station. This pipe will replace the current 60-inch pipe, which was laid more than 150 years ago. After the pipe is laid, Kolkatans will get an additional 70 million gallons of water per day.

Currently, the city gets 210 million gallons of potable water every day. Though the civic body went in for augmentation of water supply since 2003 and the supply increased from 180 million gallons to 280 million gallons, the century-old pipeline could not carry additional water.

The worn-out pipe has developed several leaks and cracked several times. In September 2006, it got breached on BT Road near the Indian Statistical Institute. A team of engineers took three days to restore normal water supply.

It was not a cakewalk for Bandyopadhyay or KMC water supply director-general Bivas Maity to bag the multi-crore project in favour of the city. "We had to convince the Centre through a powerpoint presentation about the necessity of such a project for Kolkata," said Bandyopadhyay.

The KMC engineers will have to lay the 64-inch pipe under a 24-kilometre stretch on BT Road in 35 months. The new 64-inch pipe will be laid in two different ways. "The first 12 km will be laid after digging the road and the next 12 km will be done by micro tunnelling," the municipal commissioner said.