Yettinahole passes critical legal test

Green court disposes of an application that challenged the controversial ₹13,000-crore drinking water project

The NGT has disposed a petition that sought the scrapping of the Yettinahole project.

The country’s green court has disposed of an application that challenged the controversial ₹13,000-crore Yettinahole drinking water project. With this, the stage is set for the completion of the first phase of the project, which envisages the diversion of over 24 TMC of water during the monsoon months from four tributaries of the River Nethravati.

On October 5, Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Delhi dismissed a petition by environmentalist K.N. Somashekhar, who challenged the implementation of the project. His application stated that the project would be detrimental to the eco-sensitive Western Ghats, apart from legislative lapses.

Work on the ₹3,716 crore Phase I of the project to construct weirs and underground pipelines in forests and plantations in Sakleshpur taluk had been slow due to the cases filed. Eight weirs are to be constructed across the tributaries, after which the water will be pumped to parched areas of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru Rural among others.

However, the NGT has dismissed the petition. “We direct the user agency to proceed with the construction of Yettinahole Phase I project, only subject to compliance of various conditions and directions in terms of the detailed judgement that will follow,” states the ‘operative portion’ of the judgement.

K. Jaiprakash, Managing Director of Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Ltd., a special purpose vehicle created for drinking water needs of central Karnataka, said the judgement represented a victory for the state government which “effectively” presented the need of the project.

“There are two more petitions present before the court, but the points of the contention in those applications are addressed in this judgement. We expect those to be disposed soon too and work can progress with some speed,” he told reporters on Friday.

VJNL expects works on Phase I to be completed by February, and nearly 70% of the project has been completed. He said ₹2,282 crore has been spent on the ‘lift component’ i.e. weirs, pipelines and pumping stations. However, the remaining two components - conveyance system of transporting pumped water through 274-km of gravity channels and then distribution of the water from a reservoir to target districts is expected to take another four years at least, he added.