Presented study describes the synthesis of photo cross-linkable and water soluble hydroxyethyl starch hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HESHEMA) samples with different degree of substitution (DS) by functionalization of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) with hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) or hydroxyethyl methacrylate carbonylimidazole (HEMACI) in DMSO using two different routes. It was revealed that the reaction time for HESHEMA synthesis can be reduced from 5 days to 24 h by conducting the reaction at $80^{circ}C$ instead of at room temperature. Solubility of HESHEMA was found to be dependent on DS which in turn was dependent on ratio between HES and HEMA or HEMACI. HESHEMA samples with DS > 0.24 depicted insoluble in water, whereas the samples with DS < 0.05 did not form appreciable gel. HESHEMA samples with appropriate DS were converted into hydrogels by cross-linking polymer chains under UV radiations and resulting HESHEMA hydrogels showed swelling up to 1200%. Application of HESHEMA in controlled drug delivery was investigated by diffusion based encapsulation of Ondansetron, a serotonin 5-$HT_3$ receptor antagonist drug, mainly used for nausea and vomiting treatment.