Shimla, Aug 24 (IANS): The Himachal Pradesh cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday decided to fill 4,000 posts of teachers, including 820 posts of drawing teachers and 870 for physical education, on contract.

Of the total posts, 2,640 would be in the Elementary Education department and the remaining in the Higher Education department. It was decided that batch-wise recruitment would be expedited.

The cabinet approved the draft package negotiated by the state Urban Development department with the World Bank and the Department of Economic Affairs of the Centre for funding the Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Services Delivery Programme in the Greater Shimla area with an outlay of $250 million (Rs 1,813 crore).

Of the Rs 1,813 crore, the World Bank will provide an assistance of Rs 1,160.32 crore and the state government will bear Rs 652.68 crore, an official statement said.

The cabinet authorized the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development department to sign the negotiation deal with the World Bank.

The main components of the project include augmentation of water supply from the Satluj river with additional 67 million litre per day (MLD) to meet the water demand till 2050 and bulk water supply of special area development authorities of Kufri, Shoghi and Ghanahatti.

The project envisages lifting water from the river near Shakrodi village involving lifting to a height of 1.6 km and pipe laying of 22 km to augment 67 MLD water at Sanjauli near here. The project also seeks to replace the distribution pipe network across the Shimla Municipal Corporation to upgrade it to 24x7 water supply system.

The sewerage network in areas of Mehli, Panthaghati, Totu and Mashobra will be provided. This will be a flagship project for the state as it seeks to provide world-class water supply and sewerage system in Shimla.

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