The council of Mangalore City Corporation at its meeting on Friday resolved to write to the Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, to cancel the licence issued to Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd. (MSEZL) to build a vented dam across the Netravathi at Jakribettu, Bantwal taluk, on the upstream of Thumbe vented dam which supplied drinking water to the city.
Threat
The council took the decision as it said the dam proposed to be built by the company would reduce the water storage area of the new vented dam being built by the government for supplying drinking water to the city, by 30 per cent.
It would affect the purpose for which the new vented dam was built at Thumbe, the council said.
According to an agenda note placed in the council, if the MSEZL built its dam at Jakribettu water storage capacity of the new vented dam at Thumbe would be reduced from 14 million cubic metres to 10 million cubic metres. The dam at Thumbe would be seven metres in height.
It said according to the terms of conditions of the licence issued to the company, it should have completed its dam at Jakribettu within five years.
The licence was valid for five years. Though four-and-half years have lapsed, the company had not begun the construction.
The council said as per the conditions if the company built the dam at Jakribettu it should make judicious use of water so that water supply to Thumbe dam was not hit.
It said that the company had proposed to build the dam at 4 km distance on the upstream of Thumbe vented dam and 7 km down the existing dam of the AMR company (in between Thumbe dam and AMR dam).
Not consulted
The agenda note said that MSEZL before applying for the licence had not consulted the city corporation whether its proposed dam would affect water supply to Thumbe.
The council said that taking all the factors into consideration the company should not be allowed to build the dam at Jakribettu.
