Ensuring the safety of drinking water and food plays critical role in protection of public health from water borne and food borne microbial pathogens. Coliforms, including Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes serves as key indicators of water contamination and indicate the presence of harmful intestinal pathogens. Error free detection and enumeration of coliforms in drinking water free from false positive tests are essential for monitoring sanitary quality of water. Our study showed that CMBB broth can be used as a single direct test for detection of coliforms in water within 12-18 hours. A new selective medium using methylene blue (MB) and Congo red (CR) is described and compared with EMB, MacConkey agar. Escherichia coli on newly designed culture medium –CMBB agar produced distinct colony morphology, nucleated colonies with blue centre and white periphery. Newly formulated CMBB agar medium was acting as a selective and indicator medium for detection of E.coli in water.