The State Government has extended the deadline till this year end for completing the laying of the 363-km sewer network and associated facilities under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan in the city.
Mangalore will have to wait longer to connect the sewer line of their houses to the network laid by the Government. The associated facilities comprise constructing sewage treatment plants, wet wells, manholes, and pump houses.
The works being implemented by the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) for the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) under the scheme called Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP) should had been completed by March, 2012. Although works commenced in 2003, in reality it took off only in 2007 because of various issues. The Government terminated the contracts of five major contractors in 2006 as they failed to perform.
The Commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation Harish Kumar K. told The Hindu on Wednesday that an empowered committee of the Government headed by Additional Chief Secretary K. Jairaj has extended the deadline for completing all works till December, 2012.
He said that according to the KUIDFC, sewer network to 8.5-km length was yet to be completed in the city. To complete 2.5-km length sewer network, land was required, he said.
“We will address the land acquisition issue. The required land will be handed over to KUIDFC,” Mr. Kumar said.
Another senior official of KUIDFC, Mangalore, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the new sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Jeppinamogaru with 20 MLD (million litres per day) processing capacity and at Surathkal having 16.75 MLD processing capacity were in advanced stages of completion.
Of the 22 new wet wells, eight have been commissioned and the remaining were in various stages of completion.
He said that an issue relating to laying the network in the land belonging to Southern Railways at Kulshekara had not been addressed yet. The official said that once all the works were completed, the contractors would have a year as defect liability period for rectifying the faults.
Earlier while speaking to The Hindu K.T. Maninarayana, Superintending Engineer, KUIDFC, Mangalore, had gone on record that the new STP at Kavoor with 43 MLD capacity had been completed and handed over to the Mangalore City Corporation. Another new STP at Pachchanady and a tertiary treatment plant at Pilikula having 8.75 MLD capacity were being operated on a trial basis after giving connection to about 300 houses in Pachchanady area, he said.
