Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise to provide tap water to each household in the country may cost a whopping Rs 7.88 lakh crore.The estimate is based on project reports submitted by the states to the Jal Shakti Ministry and considering the present coverage of piped water at 18 per cent in the country.

Given the huge fund requirement for the ambitious project,the Centre is looking at innovative financing options such as public private partnership (PPP) and hybrid annuity model, which has been successfully implemented in the road sector."The states may opt for available innovative financing models," official said.

Even as the task looks challenging, the government isconfident of implementing the piped water project, pointing out the enormity offunds and execution involved in the Swachh Bharat Mission."India is ontrack to become open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019. In the last fiveyears, 9.76 crore toilets were built covering 5.72 lakh villages. There is noreason to doubt that piped water can not be provided to each household by2024," the official quoted above said.

The Centre has proposed to provide funds for water-relatedschemes to states against the outcomes. The idea behind it is that goodperforming states draw more funds, while those not performing miss out on theshare.As per the latest data available with the government, only few statessuch as Sikkim, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry and Punjab have more than 50 per cent ofhouseholds covered with piped water. Sikkim has the highest coverage of 99 percent followed by Gujarat at 79 per cent.

The less covered states are Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,Jharkhand and Tripura.

The Modi 2.0 government has accorded top priority to waterand has launched several schemes to ensure water availability across thecountry as well as its conservation. It has created the new Ministry of JalShakti for dealing with all matters related to water in an integrated manner.Variouswater related schemes, including flood management, Namami Gange and nationalwater conservation plan, are estimated to cost Rs 3.64 lakh crore over the nextfive years.