Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Tuesday that the state government would prepare a new Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the Mekedatu project and submit it to the Central Water Commission (CWC).
“We have just reviewed the (Supreme) Court’s decision. We will open an office at the chief engineer (CE) level at Ramanagara in Bengaluru South district. It was pending for the last 4–5 years. We will take it forward. So, we will prepare a new plan of action on this and will submit it to the CWC,” Shivakumar told reporters after a high-level meeting with officials on implementing the Mekedatu project.
The meeting comes days after the Supreme Court’s ruling that set aside Tamil Nadu’s petition against the Mekedatu project.
The DPR was rejected earlier, the deputy chief minister said, adding that applications will be submitted again to the Union government.
“We have to provide details of the quantity of forest area that gets submerged. We have decided to build a specific office; there is already a small office at Harobele. We have decided to open an office at the CE level in Ramanagara, since it will be close to both Mandya and Ramanagara,” he said.
The Mekedatu initiative is a pet project of Shivakumar, and the Congress had conducted a padayatra on the issue when the BJP was in power.
The project aims to supply 4.75 tmcft of drinking water to Bengaluru and surrounding areas and will also generate 400 MW of hydroelectric power.
For this, Karnataka plans to construct a concrete gravity dam at Mekedatu with a storage capacity of 67.16 tmcft. Alongside water and power supply, the state also hopes to bolster its tourism sector through the project.
‘Harmony beneficial’
Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said Karnataka’s legal battle on the Mekedatu issue will benefit if the state seeks the Union government’s approval with “trust” and “harmony.”
He noted that “bringing politics” into the matter or making it a “matter of political prestige” would harm Karnataka’s interests.
Bommai claimed the project would have reached an advanced stage by now if the Congress had not undertaken its padayatra. Stating that Tamil Nadu would not withdraw its case, the former chief minister cautioned the state government to complete every stage “very intelligently.”