‘Rs. 350 crore won’t serve any purpose’

Mysore/Mysuru: Funds must not be a shortage for the ambitious Rs. 563 crore Hale Unduwadi Drinking Water Project aimed at supplying drinking water to Mysuru City and 92 villages around it.

The project has already been initiated and the original funds of Rs. 563 crore must be retained instead of curtailing it to Rs. 350 crore. Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, who met BJP MLA Narasimha Nayak alias Raju Gowda, Chairman of Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board (KUWS&DB) and requested him to implement the Hale Unduwadi project as per the original proposal at an estimated cost of  Rs. 563 crore.

He requested Nayak to drop the revised Rs. 350 crore proposal as it will not serve any major purpose. “The Board should take up the original project, not the revised one,” he stated. The project was launched in 2012 and Rs. 563 crore was estimated. Later, the tenders were called for a limited Rs. 350 crore. It is difficult to implement such a mega project with limited resources, the MP said.

In a press release, Pratap Simha stated that responding to his request, Raju Gowda informed him that he will take up the issue in the next Board meeting.

Tenders for the project were floated in December 2020 and the first phase of the project is being taken up at an estimated cost of Rs. 350 crore. Once the project is implemented, the city and its neighbouring villages will get 300 Million Litres per Day (MLD) water from River Cauvery.  This would be in addition to 250 MLD being supplied to the city at present. This project will get Cauvery water from KRS Dam backwaters instead of the present practice of lifting water from Canals and it is one of the biggest drinking water supply projects in South India.