'18 MGD pipeline from Thumbe to be commissioned soon'

The 14-km long pipeline works had begun in 2003

Almost one-and-half-year has passed barring the deadline, and finally, the ADB-funded drinking water supply project of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) from Thumbe to the City is getting ready for commissioning.

The 18 MGD (million gallon litre per day) capacity pipeline project had begun in 2003 and was to be completed in 2007 itself but it got delayed for various reasons. The 14-km long pipeline works have been completed now and the City is waiting eagerly to see that its water woes are solved to a great extent. The pipeline is supposed to supply water to Ullal also apart from Mangalore.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Mangalore City Corporation Commissioner Sameer Shukla said it would take at least 15 more days for the actual commissioning of the pipeline.

“The cleaning of the pipeline is over till Padil. The raw water has reached the storage tank there. The water has been sent for purity testing,” he informed.

The Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP) Project Director J R Lobo said the completion of pipe laying process from Thumbe to Mangalore is in fact a major step in the project. “However, it is a long and complex process which will take more than two weeks for commissioning,” he added.

The 800 km-long pipeline laid within the City also need to be tested and interconnected.

Cleaning is also necessary. The old pipeline and the new one should also be joined wherever required, he explained.

The equipments installed at low-lying and elevated areas are also being tested, Lobo added.

The completion of the much-awaited pipeline when the city is experiencing the peak of the summer, is indeed a sweet news for Mangaloreans. It can be recalled here that the works of the KUDCEMP on the one hand, were being delayed due to the problems in getting green signal from the  Railways and National Highway Authority of India, and on the other, the objections from private people in land acquisition.

The works got further delayed in the first half of the 2008 as the contractors were not ready to continue with the four-year-old tender.

The L&T and Kirloskar companies, the main contractors of the project, were firm on the point that a fresh tender should be assigned to them as the rates of all construction materials have gone up in the last four years.