BWSSB completes 65% work at TK Halli plant

The BWSSB has completed about 65% of work at the TK Halli treatment plant, coming up as part of Stage V of its Cauvery Water Supply Scheme (CWSS).

Sources said the progress was in line with a March 2023 commissioning of the Rs 5,550 crore project, delayed for two months due to rains. Earlier this year, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had announced plans to complete the stage by December 2022.

On commissioning, CWSS 5 is set to bring in an additional 775 MLD (million litres per day) of water to 110 villages across five zones in the city’s peripheries.

Of this, 500 MLD will be covered in the initial phase. Work on the three pump houses — in TK Halli, Harohalli, and Tataguni — and transmission lines is on schedule, a BWSSB chief engineer told DH.

“At the seven ground-level reservoirs, about 65% of the work is over. On completion of the stage, the CWSS project could extend coverage to about 585 sq km of the total 800 sq km (of areas under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike),” he said.

The BWSSB estimated CWSS 5 to add 3.5 lakh connections (across houses and apartments) in the freshly covered areas. The official said about 30,000 new connections have been installed so far in these areas.

The board is supplying water diverted from the city’s sources to these new connections, once a week, as a “remedial” measure. This covers 59 of the 110 villages.

About 30% of work on underground sewage lines, scheduled as part of CWSS 5, is complete, while this component will be finished by 2024, the official said.

Modest start

The response in Bengaluru’s peripheral areas to CWSS 5 has been mixed.

Satish Mallya, joint secretary of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation, traced the resistance to high costs and apprehensions about erratic supply.

He said an apartment complex with 100 units could end up paying Rs 1 crore on average for the Cauvery connection and the sewage line. “People who have paid for the Cauvery connections are still depending on borewell water supplied in tankers. It is not a sustainable model but there are questions on the necessity to switch when the existing supply works, at much lesser costs,” he said.

The project is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (84%), the state government (8%), and the BWSSB (8%).

Project details

Estimated commissioning of Cauvery Stage 5: March 2023

Existing connections in 110 peripheral villages: 30,000

Progress on treatment plant and ground-level reservoirs: 65%

Estimated total coverage in BBMP areas after Stage 5: 73%

Commissioning of sewage line component: 2024