'Yettinahole will be a reality soon'

Former minister and district Congress president B Shivaramu said, the foundation stone for the much-awaited Yethinahole water project will be laid soon.

Addressing a press conference, here, on Monday, he said, Rs 1,000 crore has been set aside for the first phase works, estimated at Rs 3269.50 crore, to lift water from the Western Ghats.

 “Even though the whole project is expected to cost Rs 8,323.50 crore, the project is ready for the first phase. The tenders, invited recently, will be opened on January 20. The project would be formally launched after the tenders have been issued,” he said.

“The project needs 19 hectares of forest land. So, the Forest department has been provided an alternative land, to get its clearance. The earlier project, which intended to lift 48 TMC feet of water, has been modified to lift only 24 TMC feet. 

Hence, the district gets only 3 TMC feet of water. If the MLAs and MPs of the district, most of whom are JD(S) leaders, had fought for the cause of the people of the district, we could have got a bigger share, at least 10 TMC feet. We will now urge the Chief Minister to slightly change the project so that 28.94 TMC feet of water can be drawn to provide an additional 4.5 TMC feet of water for the district,” Shivaram explained.

The project, which intends to supply water to drylands in Chikkaballapur district, will also irrigate lands in Arsikere and Belur taluks in the district and also in Kadur taluk of Chikmagalur district, he said.