Construction of buildings housing the treatment plant, installation of all machinery for the production of bottles, water treatment, filling, and level attaching process are complete.

Managing Director of Khulna Wasa Md Abdullah said test production will start in the last week of this month. If everything goes well, Sundarban bottled water will start selling commercially in February.

Initially, the consumers will get to buy Sundarban at the same retail price as other brands already in the market, but the wholesalers can buy at a lower price.

Sources said the initiative to set up a bottled water treatment plant was undertaken in 2015. KWASA selected a site in Rayermahal in the city to locate the plant and a Tk 19.75 crore installation agreement was signed with Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTF) in 2016.

Water will be lifted from the ground, and it will be treated to make it drinkable and then be bottled.

The bottle production facility is located on the same compound as the treatment plant.

According to the agreement, 8,000 litres of water will be produced an hour at the plant.

Every day, some 64,000 litres of water will be prepared to supply to market in 148,880 containers of 7 sizes -- measuring 300ml, 500ml, 1 litre, 2 litres, 3 litres, 5 litres and 20 litres.

During a recent visit, the UNB correspondent found the construction work on a power sub-station for the plant is almost complete.

Director of WASA water supply project Khan Selim Ahammad said the entire manufacturing process, including the bottle production, water treatment and bottling, will be an automated one.

“We’ll be ready within 15 days,” he said confidently.