"Today we are celebrating the birthday of Utkala Gaurav Madhusudan Das. I am happy that on this occasion, we have dedicated 100 rural piped water supply projects in the service of the people of our state," Patnaik said.
"Drinking water has been our priority and we have targeted to cover all our panchayats by 2017 with pipe water supply," Patnaik said.
The Chief Minister urged the citizens to avoid wasting water and encouraged villagers to take care of the piping infrastructure.
"Out of 954 projects, the state govenrment has so far completed 347. We are targeting to complete all the remaining projects by the end of the 2016-17 financial year," he said.
Earlier this month, the Chief Minister had inaugurated 100 urban drinking water supply projects for 41 urban local bodies of 20 districts in the state.