Deadline of TG Halli reservoir rejuvenation extended to March-April 2022

The BWSSB originally set December 2021 as the deadline to complete the ambitious project

Engineers who spoke to DH said labour scarcity during the pandemic was the key reason for the delay. Credit: DH Photo

Work underway at the reservoir. Credit: DH Photo

Unrelenting monsoon and fear of the pandemic have forced the BWSSB to push its deadline to complete the rejuvenation of the Thippagondanahalli (TG Halli) reservoir to March-April 2022.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) originally set December 2021 as the deadline to complete the ambitious project.

Acknowledging the delay, BWSSB chief engineer S V Ramesh said the second Covid has significantly slowed down the project work.

“Though (the work) has picked up pace since, active monsoon is delaying it. Yet, we are hopeful of completing the project by March-April 2021.”

Engineers who spoke to DH said labour scarcity during the pandemic was the key reason for the delay.

“Workers left for their home states when the government declared a lockdown,” revealed a senior engineer. “We struggled to mobilise labourers for more than two months and bring the project back on track.”

A project where 400 people once worked struggled to have 50 at the peak of the pandemic.

“Many of them contracted Covid-19 and had to be hospitalised/quarantined,” a senior BWSSB engineer said.

Normalcy has been established at the site with a contractor saying they could bring 200 labourers to the site. The restricted use of industrial oxygen considerably slowed down the pipeline work, an official added. A delay in getting equipment for sewage treatment plants (STPs) and water treatment plants (WTPs) from overseas also hit the project.

Machines from abroad

“This machinery was planned in March, but it is pushed to August due to the second wave. We expect the machines to arrive by November,” said a senior official.

Motors, pumps and electrical items are also not arriving on time from other states since the pandemic forced manufacturing units to shut down.

The project’s completion will allow BWSSB to pump 110 MLD water to western Bengaluru, but the reservoir will be fully operational only with the commissioning of the ambitious Yettinahole project by the Irrigation Department.