Nearly 1,400 sites identified for building vented dams in coastal districts

‘It is just to spend a couple of crore rupees to build vented dams than spending thousands of crores on Yettinahole project’

Sumanavathi river or Byndoor river across which a vented dam would be built to arrest ingress of salt water in Byndoor taluk.

Minister for Minor Irrigation J.C. Madhuswamy on Tuesday said that the government has identified nearly 1,400 locations across the three coastal districts where vented dams can be built to facilitate irrigation and drinking water supply.

“An estimated ₹ 3,986 crore were required to build these dams in a span of five years and the government is committed to providing water to all,” Mr. Madhuswamy said, after laying the foundation stone for a ₹ 75-crore vented dam at Paduvari near Byndoor to be built across the Sumanavathi in Udupi district.

“The government is not doing any favour; but it is repaying the debt of the people of the coastal region who have elected BJP legislators in large numbers,” the Minister said and added that the Byndoor region was bound to prosper in the coming days.

Mr. Madhuswamy said that instead of spending over ₹ 24,000 crore to derive 24 tmcft water from the Netravathi through Yettinahole Water Diversion Project, it was just to spend ₹ 1 core to ₹ 2 crore to build a vented dam that could irrigate a couple of hundreds of acres of land and also provide drinking water to people around.

There was no need for the Yettinahole project as treated sewage from Bengaluru was being supplied to the parched Kolar and Chikkaballapur region where greenery has resurfaced, the Minister said.

Mr. Madhuswamy said that 446 locations were identified in Dakshina Kannada, 424 in Udupi and 466 in Uttara Kannada for the construction of these vented dams. The government would build dams in phases. The Cabinet recently approved two vented dams each with an estimated cost of ₹ 35 crore for Udupi district, he said.

The government was also planning to build vented dams across rivers in Uttara Kannada district in such a way that those dams could also facilitate shrimp and prawn cultivation. He urged Shivamogga MP B.Y. Raghavendra, who was present, to ensure the Centre’s participation in the project for which the government has approached the World Bank for assistance.

Byndoor MLA B.M. Sukumar Shetty, Karnataka Coastal Development Authority chairperson Mattar Rathnakar Hegde and others were present.