Land acquisition for ADB-funded project soon

Nine years on, the project of laying of 360-km sewer network and associated facilities in the city still requires 3.57 acres of land for its completion. The project has been taken up under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan.

In addition, there are two court cases to be settled and three issues pending to be cleared by the Southern Railway for completing the project as a whole, according to a senior government official.

According to the extended deadline, the works under the scheme called Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP) should be over by December, 2012. Although works commenced in 2003, in reality it took off only in 2007. The Government terminated five contracts of major players in 2006 as they failed to perform.

Harish Kumar K, Commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation who is now also the Deputy Project Director of the project, told

The Hindu that the Revenue Department was expected to issue the final notification for acquiring 3.37 acres shortly. He said the corporation had sent a proposal to the department for issuing the preliminary notification for acquiring the remaining land.

The Commissioner said there was delay in acquiring 3.57 acres because earlier it had been thought of laying the network in those locations under the “right of way” provision. Under this provision, the corporation could only lay the pipelines but it would not be the owner of those stretches of land. Later, it was decided to acquire the land to own it.

The Commissioner said that of 360 km sewer network, 352.5 km network had been laid. The remaining 7.5 km network was fragmented at different locations. It needed land at different locations for completing. The land (3.57 acres) was required in villages such as Surathkal, Idya, Attavar, Kavoor, Boloor, Kodialbail, Kadri, Kulai, Hosabettu, Alape, Katipalla. Derebail and Bajal.

M. Yashwantaraju, Executive Engineer, KUDCEMP, said 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.

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 had been completed.

Of 22 sewage pumping stations, eight had been commissioned, seven had been completed and another seven were on the verge of completing.

Mr. Yashwantaraju said that the total cost of the project had been estimated at Rs. 214 crores. In that Rs. 187 crore had been spent so far.