MCC looking for Rs. 20 crore for completing underground drainage project

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Feb 15, 2016 :  With just three months for the monsoons here to start, more than a decade-old underground drainage project taken up in the city under a government scheme is unlikely to be commissioned before.

Reason is said to be, MCC - Mangaluru City Corporation is still looking for about Rs. 20 crore to connect the missing links and take up associated works. The project is partially commissioned now. It is the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) which laid the 360-km-long underground drainage network for the city corporation under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP).

About 200-km-long network of pipelines connecting the sewage treatment plants at Kavoor and Pachchanady have been commissioned. The balance [160-km-long] network connecting sewage treatment plants at Surathkal and Jeppinamogaru is pending to be commissioned fully due to issues of missing links and un-completed associated works.

A four-day joint survey conducted by a seven-member team of officials of the corporation and KUDCEMP from June 23, 2015 found several loose ends (mainly missing links) in the project. The funds were required to plug them.

The survey found missing links in the main sewer lines at 25 places. According to the joint survey report, the missing links were due to issues related to availability of land, court issues and rock formation in sites coming in the way of linking pipelines. Hence, KUDCEMP officials abandoned the linking works at 25 places. Will the MCC be able to meet the dead line is a big question.