Rs. 138 crore project to provide 24/7 water to Mangalore

Rs. 138 crore project to provide 24/7 water to Mangalore

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, March 27, 2012: A proposal for 24x7 uninterrupted water supply worth Rs. 138 crore presented by the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) appears to be the only solution for Mangalore’s water problems.

This proposal aims to supply water round the clock, plug leaks using sensors, and monitor water pumped from the Thumbay pumping station to consumers, eliminating water waste and rehabilitating pipelines.

When the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) started working on the water pipelines under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Project funded by the Asian Development Bank in Mangalore in 2004, the water leakage was around 38 percent. The project did not take off because the funds allotted for the purpose were reduced from Rs. 135 crore to Rs. 98 crore. The rehabilitation of old pipelines, therefore, could not be done.

 

Since the old pipelines cannot withstand the force of the new pipelines, they began leaking and most of the water does not even reach the consumers and is lost on the way. Since the old water pipes are buried beneath the road from Thumbay, leaks can be spotted throughout the way.

Meanwhile the corporation and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which laid the roads as part of the Port Connectivity Project are pointing fingers of blame at each other. While the NHAI says that they had to complete the project although the MCC did not move its water lines, the MCC says that the NHAI did not provide land for the new pipeline.

Leaks can now be observed at Bikarnakatte and Nanthoor, on roads that were concretized using Rs. 100 crore specially sanctioned for the purpose without moving any of the utilities. This means that the government will have to sanction Rs. 100 crore more to deal with this problem.

On Monday, thousands of gallons were wasted when the pipeline at Bendoorwell burst, causing artificial flooding in the area. This was a cast iron pipeline installed in 1972 and had an estimated life span of only 50 years.