Cauvery project trial run launched

Partial commissioning of IV stage II phase by October first week

On the eve of Sir M Visvesvaraya’s birth anniversary, the man who initially conceived and executed the idea of bringing Cauvery water to Bangalore City, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Friday launched the trial run of its ambitious project — Cauvery IV Stage II Phase — at Thorekadanahalli, Malavalli taluk, Mandya district, on Friday.

The project will supply an additional 500 million litres (mld) of water to the newly- added Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) areas in the coming days.

The engineers of the Board, who toiled day and night to complete the project, were jubilant when BWSSB Minister S Suresh Kumar pressed the button at 10 am sharp to open one of the gates of the ‘mechanical screen’ to allow raw water from Shiva Balancing Reservoir to flow towards the treatment plant.

Thunderous claps welcomed the ‘cascade aerator’ which resembled a sophisticated fountain carrying the raw, muddy water to the treatment plant, said to be the largest in the world.

Addressing media persons, Kumar said that after the trial run, the BWSSB would begin the partial commissioning of the new project in the first week of October to supply 300 mld of Cauvery water for the first time to over 10 lakh families in the City. The chief minister will officially launch the fully commissioned project to supply 500 mld of water to the City by November.

Capital contribution

Clearing doubts about the beneficiary capital contribution (BCC) being collected as penalty, BWSSB chairman Gaurav Gupta said the amount collected from new consumers as BCC would remain the same and the word ‘penalty’ would be done away with.
“The BCC has to be paid by consumers. The amount goes towards laying of feeder lines and distribution lines,” he said.

Asked whether Mandya farmers would also receive water from the project, the minister said that water would be supplied to villages under the Karnataka Urban Water Supply project.

Farmers of Malavalli have been demanding water supply ever since pipelines for the project were laid through their land.