Rs 337 a metre, or about Rs 103 a foot, is the borewell rate per feet that Chhattisgarh PWD’s Building SOR of 10 June 2026 allows for drilling a 150 mm bore through rock to 90 m, rising to Rs 360 a metre (about Rs 110 a foot) from 90 to 150 m. The same state’s water resources department prices rock drilling by DTH hammer at Rs 1,740 a metre (about Rs 530 a foot), so two official books differ five times over. Casing pipe is charged on top, per foot: about Rs 140 to 248 for 150 mm uPVC and Rs 320 to 613 for steel. On the lower 2026 rates, a 200 ft borewell in rock works out to about Rs 25,000 and a 500 ft one about Rs 57,000 before GST (indicative), without the pump, motor, cable or panel.

A driller quotes you a number per foot and you have nothing to check it against. State rate books give you that check. Public works and water departments publish a schedule of rates so their engineers can estimate what a government borewell should cost, and three current schedules list drilling and casing by the metre.

Their figures will not match the quote from the rig at your gate. What they show is how the bill is built: a drilling rate that changes with the ground and the depth, casing charged separately, and flushing paid by the hour. Once you see that structure, a cheap-looking quote is easy to read.

Borewell rate per feet in the state rate books

The schedules give rates per metre. The per-foot column is our conversion at 3.281 feet to a metre. Every row names its schedule and the date it took effect.

Item as listed Schedule and date Per metre Per foot
Drilling 150 mm, all types of soil, up to 90 m Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.1.1.3) Rs 288 Rs 87.8
Drilling 150 mm, rocky strata incl. boulders, up to 90 m Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.1.2.3) Rs 337 Rs 102.7
Drilling 150 mm, rocky strata, 90 to 150 m Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.2.2.3) Rs 360 Rs 109.7
uPVC medium casing (CM) pipe 150 mm, IS 12818 Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.3.3) Rs 459 Rs 139.9
MS ERW casing pipe 150 mm, 5.0 mm wall, IS 4270 Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.7.3) Rs 1,051 Rs 320.3
Development of tube well by air compressor Chhattisgarh PWD Building SOR, 10 Jun 2026 (21.10) Rs 556 per hour
Drilling 150 mm in alluvium or overburden, 0 to 70 m Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.52) Rs 745 Rs 227.1
Drilling 150 mm in rock of all types, DTH or direct rotary Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.58) Rs 1,740 Rs 530.3
uPVC CM casing pipe 150 mm Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.64) Rs 815 Rs 248.4
ERW MS pipe 150 mm, medium grade Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.61) Rs 2,010 Rs 612.6
Development by compressor, 7 cum a minute Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.66) Rs 1,025 per hour
Submersible pump 100 LPM with control panel, cable and column pipes; installation labour Chhattisgarh WRD SOR 2025, from 1 May 2025 (8.68, 8.69) Rs 41,260 each; Rs 2,740 each
Drilling 300 mm, all types of soil, up to 90 m Puducherry PSR 2024-25, from 14 Aug 2024 (23.1.1.1) Rs 695.71 Rs 212.0
Drilling 300 mm, rocky strata incl. boulders, up to 90 m Puducherry PSR 2024-25, from 14 Aug 2024 (23.1.2.1) Rs 1,657.99 Rs 505.3
Drilling 300 mm, rocky strata, 90 to 150 m Puducherry PSR 2024-25, from 14 Aug 2024 (23.2.2.1) Rs 1,835.29 Rs 559.4

Three things stand out. Rock costs more than soil in every book; in Puducherry’s 300 mm items, rock drilling costs more than twice the all-soils rate. The gap between books is large: Chhattisgarh’s PWD and its water resources department price the same 150 mm hole in rock at about Rs 103 and Rs 530 a foot. Neither is a market quote, so use the pair as a range to test a driller’s figure against. And both Chhattisgarh books say their rates exclude GST.

The PWD rate also covers more than the cutting. The notes to Chhattisgarh PWD’s Building SOR of 10 June 2026 say the drilling rate includes the rig and its transport to site, setting it up, removing it afterwards, water, fuel, labour and clearing the site. Ask a private driller whether the same things sit inside the rate per foot or come as extras.

Government borewell work is estimated from schedules like these, so a driller bidding for it is working to these numbers. Current rural water supply and borewell tenders show where that work is, and Jal Jeevan Mission contractor registration explains how to qualify for it.

Why the drilling rate per foot rises with depth and hard rock

Two things set the borewell drilling rate per feet: what the bit is cutting, and how deep it is cutting.

Soft ground such as clay, sand and gravel is drilled by rotary methods. The Chhattisgarh water resources book prices alluvium “by reverse rotary or any other method” and rock “by DTH unit/direct rotary with rock rollers”. A DTH (down-the-hole) hammer is a percussion tool at the bottom of the drill string. It runs on compressed air, which also blows the cuttings out of the hole, so a rock borewell needs a large high-pressure air compressor burning diesel beside the rig. That is a large part of why the rate per foot jumps in hard rock.

Depth adds cost in slabs. The Chhattisgarh PWD book has one rate to 90 m (about 295 ft) and a higher one from 90 to 150 m (about 492 ft). The higher rate applies only to the footage inside that band. A 300 ft borewell pays it on its last 5 feet or so; a 500 ft one pays it on about 200 feet.

Market quotes vary from district to district, but they tend to follow the same shape with more steps: a base rate for the first stretch, then a higher rate for each band below it. Ask for the slab table in writing, and check whether each step is charged on the band or on the full depth. That one detail moves the bill more than the base rate does.

Borewell casing pipe rate per feet: PVC or steel

Casing is the pipe that lines the top of the hole, where loose soil would otherwise cave in. It is billed by the foot, separately from drilling, and only for the length actually lowered.

How much you need depends on the ground. The Chhattisgarh PWD notes ask for casing at least 9 m below ground, taken down to rock and set 0.15 m into it where loose strata run deeper, and left about 0.3 m above ground. At the minimum that is roughly 30 feet of pipe. Where soft ground runs deep, the casing runs deeper with it, and in sandy alluvium the well may need slotted screen pipe and a gravel pack against the water-bearing layer.

The pipe you choose moves the bill more than the length. In the two Chhattisgarh books, 150 mm uPVC casing costs about Rs 140 to 248 a foot and MS ERW steel casing about Rs 320 to 613, more than double. The PWD schedule names the standard for each: IS 12818 for uPVC casing and screen pipe, IS 4270 for steel casing. A quote that names neither the pipe nor the standard leaves you no way to check what is going into the ground.

Borewell price for 100, 200, 300 and 500 feet

Here is the bill worked through on both Chhattisgarh books, as indicative examples. The assumptions are a 150 mm hole, the first 9 m in soil and the rest in rock, 9.3 m of uPVC casing, one hour of development (the compressor flushing that clears the hole and tests its yield), and no GST.

  • 100 ft (30.5 m): about Rs 14,700 on the PWD 2026 rates and Rs 52,700 on the WRD 2025 rates.
  • 200 ft (61 m): about Rs 24,900 and Rs 1,05,700.
  • 300 ft (91.4 m): about Rs 35,200 and Rs 1,58,700.
  • 500 ft (152.4 m): about Rs 57,200 and Rs 2,64,800.

The 500 ft figure goes 2.4 m past the 150 m limit of the PWD slabs, and we priced that last stretch at the 90 to 150 m rate. On the PWD rates the borewell price per feet falls from about Rs 147 at 100 ft to Rs 114 at 500 ft, because the fixed casing and flushing bill is spread over more feet. Your driller’s figure will differ from both books. The point of the sum is to spot which line of a quote is out of step.

What the rate per foot does not pay for

A borewell rate per foot buys a cased hole. It does not buy water at the tap.

The pump set is the largest item left out. Chhattisgarh’s water resources book prices a 100 LPM submersible pump with control panel, cable and column pipes at Rs 41,260, and lists installation labour separately. On the lower rates, that pump costs more than the whole 200 ft hole. Budget for the electricity connection to the panel as well.

Before the rig arrives, settle these lines in writing:

  • Whether GST is inside the rate or added on top.
  • The cap and the platform round the casing. The Chhattisgarh PWD notes require a dry or low-yield well to be capped and sealed under a concrete block.
  • The rate for extra hours of flushing if the first hour does not clear the water.
  • What you pay if the hole comes up dry.

On that last point, the PWD book refuses payment for a well that becomes useless during construction, for example when a tool falls in, yet it keeps a dry well capped for later use. A private job runs on whatever you agree. The driller’s side of that argument, with the Supreme Court’s site rules on caps and filling, is in our guide to borewell business profit.

Check permission too. A borewell that supplies a building site needs a groundwater NOC. Farm use is on the central authority’s exemption list, but states that run their own groundwater law set their own rules on new wells, so ask the district groundwater office before drilling.

Where water sits close to the surface, a borewell may not be the cheapest source at all. An open well is usually 6 to 15 m deep and stores water through a slow spell; see which machine digs an open well before you book a rig.

If you are pricing a drilling rig of your own instead of hiring one, start with equipment finance for the rig and compressor.

Rates, schedules, pipe prices and permissions change — confirm current terms with the driller, the state department that issues the schedule and your district groundwater office before deciding.