'Udupi to get 24X7 water supply in 38 months'

Udupi town will get 24X7 water supply from River Varahi in the next 38 months, said Udupi City Municipal Council Environment Engineer Raghavendra.

Addressing a gathering at a consultative meeting, convened to discuss about Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Programme (KIUWMIP), he said 24X7 water supply scheme would be a reality for Udupi town areas soon.

Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) Assistant Executive Engineer(AEE) Ramakrishnaiah said the tender process was completed and the work order had been issued.

“The work will begin shortly. In the next 38 months, 24X7 drinking water supply will become a reality to the people of Udupi,” he said.

Elaborating on the impending project, Raghavendra said 40 MLD water will be sourced from River Varahi to mitigate the water scarcity problem during the peak summer. A plan to lay pipelines from the jackwell of the non-functional lift irrigation pump house at Bharathkal village, on the banks of River Varahi, to the dam across the River Swarna at Baje, about 15 km from Udupi city, will be taken up.

He said water was being supplied to the city from the Baje dam for decades now. However, the River Swarna goes dry in the summer as the inflow stops by January third week.

Councilor T G Hegde said that people in his ward had already begun questioning when the project, envisaging water supply to Udupi, would begin?.

He said the existing 27.24-MLD capacity water treatment plant (WTP), constructed under KUDCEMP scheme, would not meet the demands in the year 2046. So a new WTP and seven overhead water tanks will be constructed as a part of the project.

So keeping the demands in mind the comprehensive management of drinking water is a need-of-the hour, Hegde said.