Nearly 15 lakh residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad can now look forward to getting clean drinking water. If the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is to be believed, citizens' long-cherished dream of getting "completely clean, pure and unpolluted drinking water' will come true in two years time. PCMC's confidence stems from the Rs 400-crore, closed-pipeline project that it plans to launch from May 1. District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar is slated to lay the foundation stone for the project near Pavana dam on Maharashtra Day. MPs Suresh Kalmadi, Supriya Sule and Adhalrao Patil as also a number of MLAs have been invited. The pipeline will stretch from Pavana dam to PCMC's Ravet pumping station, a 36-km distance. Along with laying the pipeline, the PCMC will construct sump house and a pump house at Pavana. The PCMC has handed over the pipeline project to the NCC-SMC-Indu consortium. "The project is being taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The PCMC will have to spend Rs 130 crore while Central Government will pay the rest of the amount,' PCMC additional city engineer Vishwas Gaikwad said on Monday. The project, said Gaikwad, has a deadline of two years and the company is expected to lay two pipes of 1,800 mm diameter parallel to the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. The PCMC is expecting that the project will not only ensure clean drinking water, but will also save crores of rupees. "As of now, we are paying Rs 18 crore to the irrigation department for lifting raw water from Pavana dam. Once the project gets on stream, the cost will come down drastically. We expect to pay around Rs 6 crore which means there will be a saving of Rs 12 crore every year,' Gaikwad said. The water is filtered at its Ravet pumping station before being supplied across the town. "Since the water comes all the way from Pavana dam, it is highly polluted. Despite best efforts only 60-70 per cent water supplied to the town is clean,' said PCMC water department sources. The PCMC lifts 325 MLD water every day from the Pavana dam. Gaikwad said that the pipeline has been designed in such a way that they can accommodate additional quantum of water as per the requirement. "The pipeline has been designed to take care of the water demands of the population by 2025. By that year, 525 MLD water will be required and these pipes have the capacity to supply that much water,' he said.