Jal Jeevan Mission and AMRUT 2.0: India's water missions explained for suppliers and investors

Both are centrally sponsored schemes: the centre shares the cost, but states and cities plan, tender and pay for the work. For a supplier, that means 28 states and thousands of towns with their own procurement, rather than one national buyer.

When JJM began in August 2019, 3.23 crore of India’s 19.36 crore rural households, or 16.7%, had a tap connection.^[1] By March 2026 about 15.80 crore households, or 81.6%, were connected, with more than 12.5 crore connections added since 2019.^[3]

Eleven states and union territories, including Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, report full coverage.^[5] The laggards are large states: in February 2025 Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Rajasthan were all at roughly 54–55%, Madhya Pradesh at 67% and Andhra Pradesh at 74%.^[1] Rajasthan had reached 58% by January 2026.^[5] Most of the remaining work, and much of the new money, is therefore concentrated in a handful of big states.

The Cabinet approved the extension on 10 March 2026. Total outlay rises to ₹8.69 lakh crore, with central assistance of ₹3.59 lakh crore, ₹1.51 lakh crore more than approved in 2019.^[3] The mission now shifts from building connections to delivering a service:^[3]

• Utility approach. Schemes are to be run like utilities, with attention to supply hours, quality and maintenance.
• Sujalam Bharat. A national digital framework gives each village a service area ID mapping its supply from source to tap.
• Jal Arpan. Schemes are formally handed over to gram panchayats and village water committees.
• Har Ghar Jal certification. A village can be declared fully covered only once the state confirms that operation and maintenance arrangements are in place.
• State agreements. Each state signs a separate memorandum with the centre.

For foreign firms, this matters more than the headline money. The next phase rewards metering, monitoring, water quality, energy-efficient pumping and operating skills, not just pipe laying.

Sources: Union Budget documents and PRS.^[6][7][8]

The table shows the problem of the last two years. Central spending fell sharply in 2024-25 and 2025-26 while the extension was pending: PRS reports that the 2025-26 revised estimate was 75% below the budget, and that central grants were held back until the extension was approved.^[8] Costs also rose, to more than ₹50,000 per household from 2023-24 against an earlier estimate of no more than ₹47,000.^[8]

Contractors felt it. In October 2025 the industry body ASSOCHAM said certified bills had gone unpaid for 10–12 months, with dues of about ₹12,500 crore in Maharashtra and over ₹11,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh, and that new connections had fallen from 2.99 crore in 2023-24 to 0.94 crore in 2024-25.^[9] These are the industry’s own figures, but they are consistent with the budget data. With the extension approved and ₹67,670 crore budgeted for 2026-27,^[7] payments should recover, but any bidder should check a state’s payment record before committing working capital.

Rapid spending brought quality problems. By December 2025 the ministry had received 17,036 complaints of financial irregularities and poor work from 32 states and union territories, and action had been taken against 621 officials.^[10] Penalties of ₹129 crore were imposed across seven states, most of it in Gujarat, and action was taken against 969 contractors and 153 third-party inspection agencies.^[11]

State audits by the Comptroller and Auditor General point the same way. In Kerala, the CAG found coverage of 52% in March 2024, ₹3,578 crore of contractor bills pending and 2.14 lakh connections disconnected within a month of being made.^[12] In Punjab it called the state’s 2023 claim of full coverage misleading.^[13] A 2024 assessment found taps working in 87% of connected homes but fully functional in only 76%, mainly because of pump failures, damaged pipes and power problems.^[8]

The response has been tighter inspection: payment now requires third-party certification, and since April 2025 each state inspects four randomly chosen schemes every month.^[10] Inspection agencies need at least five years’ experience and ₹5 crore of turnover.^[14] Foreign testing, inspection and certification firms with Indian subsidiaries can compete for this work.

Each state runs its own procurement through a nodal department, usually the Public Health Engineering Department or a state water board or Jal Nigam. The CAG’s 2026 audit of Chhattisgarh shows a typical structure: a state water and sanitation mission chaired by the Chief Secretary sanctions schemes, while district missions led by the Collector can sanction and tender schemes of up to ₹5 crore.^[15]

The large multi-village contracts are where the volume is. Examples include L&T’s package covering 648 villages in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district, with SCADA and 10 years of operation;^[16] its Prayagraj division contracts in Uttar Pradesh covering 1,900 villages;^[17] and MEIL’s Amarajeevi Jaladhara scheme in Andhra Pradesh, with 186 MLD and 155 MLD treatment plants and 12 years of operation.^[18]

AMRUT 2.0 was approved in October 2021 for 2021-22 to 2025-26, with an indicative outlay of ₹2.77 lakh crore and central assistance of ₹76,760 crore (a later ministry document gives the total as ₹2.99 lakh crore).^[2][19] Its targets include 2.68 crore tap connections, 2.64 crore sewer connections, 20% of water demand met from recycled water and non-revenue water below 20%.^[2] Cities with more than 10 lakh people must deliver at least 10% of project value through PPP.^[2]

Data as of February 2026.^[20]

Delivery lags approvals. By November 2025, 8,804 projects worth ₹1.93 lakh crore had been approved and work worth ₹1.21 lakh crore awarded, but only ₹47,411 crore of work was physically complete.^[21] A parliamentary committee reported in August 2026 that the mission now ends on 31 March 2027 and that only 17.5% of sewerage projects were complete.^[4] The central allocation for 2026-27 is ₹8,000 crore.^[22]

A typical large AMRUT contract is SPML Infra’s ₹1,073 crore award in Indore in 2025: a 400 MLD water treatment plant and intake, built over 30 months and operated for 10 years.^[23] By September 2024, 50 PPP projects worth ₹7,789 crore had been approved in 11 states.^[24]

In February 2026 the Cabinet approved a ₹1 lakh crore Urban Challenge Fund for 2025-26 to 2030-31, intended to mobilise ₹4 lakh crore in total. The centre funds 25% of a project, cities must raise at least 50% through bonds, loans or PPP, and states or cities cover the rest. Water supply, sewerage and water grids are eligible, and there is a ₹5,000 crore credit guarantee scheme.^[25]

Cities are also borrowing directly. Under AMRUT 2.0, 11 urban local bodies raised ₹1,719 crore through municipal bonds with ₹150.5 crore of central incentives,^[21] and 13 bodies raised ₹4,984 crore over AMRUT’s ten years.^[19] As more urban water projects are part-financed by markets rather than grants, bankable project structures, PPP and long operation contracts will matter more.

• No global tenders up to ₹200 crore. Rule 161(iv) of the General Financial Rules bars global tender enquiries for contracts up to ₹200 crore, including works and turnkey contracts, unless the Cabinet Secretariat approves an exception.^[26]
• Local content. Under the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, Class I suppliers have at least 50% local content and Class II at least 20%. Below ₹200 crore only Class I and II suppliers can bid, and Class I suppliers get purchase preference.^[27]
• State rules. JJM and AMRUT tenders are issued by states and cities, which apply their own versions of these rules. Check each tender’s eligibility and local content clauses.

The practical result: on most contracts below ₹200 crore, a foreign company competes through an Indian subsidiary, a local manufacturing arrangement or an Indian partner, not as an importer. See our guides to joint ventures and choosing an Indian entity.

The firms that do well in Indian water usually combine three things: a technology or operating skill that Indian contractors lack, a manufacturing or assembly base that meets local content rules, and an Indian partner with the track record to pre-qualify. Our partner search service finds and checks that partner.