Water in the Kootuhole reservoir, the main source of drinking water to Madikeri city, will last for little over a month, president of the city municipal council (CMC) P.D. Ponnappa said here on Tuesday.
He was addressing presspersons after visiting the reservoir along with Chairman of the Works Committee of the CMC T.S. Prakash and CMC Commissioner Srikanth Rao.
He said that the CMC had been supplying water to the people of the city once in two days since March 3 keeping in mind the impending shortage in the coming days. Two tankers would be pressed into service from Wednesday to transport water from the three borewells near DAR Quarters, CMC office and on Race Course Road to replenish the water-level at Roshanara, Kannandabane and Pumpinakere water sources, Mr. Ponnappa said.
An express line to overcome the low voltage crisis and provide fluctuation-free power supply to the pumping station at the Kootuhole reservoir was being planned, he said. In the absence of proper power supply to the station, a diesel generator was being used to pump water. Work on the Kundamestri water project to pump water into the Kootuhole reservoir at a cost of Rs. 23 crore would begin next month.
The work would be taken up in three phases. Tenders had been approved for the work involving a cost of Rs. 6.5 crore in the first phase, Mr. Srikanth Rao said. A company from Hyderabad was executing the project. A jackwell at the Kundamestri water source and laying pipelines were part of the work in the first phase, he added.
Mr. Ponnappa, Mr. Rao, Mr. Prakash, councillors Satish Pai and Unnikrishnan and engineer Shiva Kumar visited the water tank being built at Putaninagar. The tank would be commissioned soon, Mr. Ponnappa said.
