Karnataka's ambitious, Rs 23,252 crore drinking water project set for major milestone

Bengaluru: An ambitious, Rs 23,251.66 crore drinking water project in Karnataka is set for a major milestone this week with the completion of its first phase.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Monday said the stage-1 works of ‘Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water Project’ will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on September six.

It is planned to complete the entire project on priority by March 31, 2027, he said.

The project envisages lifting of 24.01 TMC of water available during monsoon from Yettinahole, Kadumane Hole, Keri Hole and Hongada halla coming under western ghats in Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district to mitigate the acute drinking water problem in drought-prone areas, especially in Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts, and other needy areas of Hassan, Ckikkamagaluru, Tumkur, Ramanagar and Bangalore Rural districts.

This is being done by utilising 14.056 TMC of water and filling of 527 tanks to their 50 per cent capacity utilising 9.953 TMC of water to recharge ground water table which will benefit the population of about 75.59 lakh (projected population for 2023-24) of 6,657 villages and 38 towns in 29 taluks.

The implementation of the project amounting to Rs 23,251.66 crore has reached a decisive stage with the inauguration of stage-1 works of this project on Friday, Shivakumar, who is also the water resources Minister, said.

Speaking to reporters here, Shivakumar said this project was long awaited and many people have cooperated for its implementation, including farmers by giving their land.

“There was some criticism of the project. After I took the responsibility of the department, at every stage I reviewed the project. Many even tried to create obstructions to the project. Earlier governments also have made efforts towards the implementation of the project. I fixed the time bound programme, there were some black mail attempts, but I found solutions,” he said.

He added that there has been cooperation from concerned departments and district administrations.

“Water is released to Vani Vilasa Sagar temporarily which is 132 km away…..forest department has to hand over some 502 acre land to us, for which 452 acre alternate land has been approved to the forest department. But the forest department works under some framework, we expect things to be settled on this in a week’s time, soon after that work will be taken up which we expect to be completed in four months,” he said.

“If it happens, another 140 km, we will be able to bring water to Tumakuru….By 2027 we want to completely implement the project and we are working on it…Also, a separate DPR is getting ready to tap the wastage of water and how to utilise the infrastructure further,” he added.

The lift and power supply works of stage-1 which were started during 2014 have been now completed after resolving the obstacles that arose for many days, the water resources department said in a release.

It noted that the total length of the Gravity Canal is 252.61 km, out of which 164.47 km work has been completed and 25.87 km work is under progress. The Gravity Canal works from 0.00 km to 42.00 km and were completed without any obstacles, while the subsequent works were not completed due to forest and land acquisition issues.

“Hence it is planned to release 1500 cusecs of water to Vani Vilasa Sagar temporarily through veda valley…,” it added.

According to the department, the project is planned to be completed on a priority basis by March 31, 2027.

A telemetry having German technology in-house system (Real time discharge measurement) was installed in 2018 to accurately measure water flow near eight weirs constructed in the catchment area of the project. In the current monsoon season from June-1 to August-31, 14.13 TMC of water has been recorded.