Residents in some parts of the city will have to wait till October to connect sewer lines of their houses to manholes though a vast network of sewer lines and associated facilities constructed by the government under Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan will be ready by this month-end.
Because road cutting was not allowed in the monsoon, people would have to wait for the rain to stop to connect the lines to manholes, according to officials.
Of the 355 km-long network of underground sewer lines – construction of which began a decade ago – 155 km-long network was pending to be commissioned due to delay in laying electricity connection lines to sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Jeppinamogaru and Surathkal.
M. Yashwant Raj, Executive Engineer, Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP), told The Hindu that overhead power lines connecting the STP at Jeppinamogaru to a distance of about 300 m was pending to be laid near Bajal. Air budged power cable to about 1km distance was pending to be laid (hung) to connect the STP at Surathkal. These works would be over by the end of this month. “We will trial run the Jeppinamogaru and Surathkal STPs next month,” he said.
A 65 km-long sewer line from Shivabagh, Maroli, Tarethota, Pumpwell, Yekkur, Jeppinamogaru, Bajal and surrounding areas were connected to the STP at Jeppinamogaru with a processing capacity of 20 MLD (million litres a day).
Another 90 km-long underground pipeline from Hosabettu, Kulai, Katipalla and Surathkal were connected to the 16.5 MLD-capacity STP at Surathkal.
Mr. Raju said that permission of the Southern Railway and Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. would have to be obtained before commissioning the lines as at Yekkur and near Surathkal, the sewer lines passed below the railway lines.
He said that 200 km-long network of pipelines connecting the STPs at Kavoor and Pachchanady under the project have been commissioned.
