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MANGALORE Nov 30: The council of the Mangalore City Corporation in its meeting on Monday gave its consent to the proposal for a round-the-clock drinking water supply scheme under public-private participation (PPP) model.

It approved a proposal to ask the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) to prepare a detailed project report and tender documents to this effect. The agenda placed before the council to this effect said that the 24x7 water supply scheme would have to be implemented without any additional financial burden on the civic body. The meeting agreed to authorise the KUIDFC to prepare the documents required to get funds for the 24x7 scheme from the India Infrastructure Project Development Fund (IIPDF) programme of the Union Government.

Infrastructure projects

The council agreed that the city corporation could take into possession some infrastructure projects developed by the KUIDFC for the civic body under Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP). Such projects had been developed under the loan from the Asian Development Bank.

They included four water supply pump houses built at Ladyhill, Maryhill, Padil and Panambur and four ground-level reservoirs at Padil (120 lakh litres capacity), Bondel (15 lakh litres), Soojikal and Ullasnagar (both 10 lakh litres).

In addition, the council approved to take into possession eight overhead tanks of 10-lakh-litre capacity each built at Padavainangady, Panambur, near NITK-Surathkal, Katipalla, near Govindadasa College in Surathkal, Kadri Circuit House, near Neerumarga Road at Kudupu and near Mangala Jyothi school at Thiruvail. Three more overhead tanks of 15-lakh-litre capacity constructed at Chilimbi, Bala and near Mangala stadium, and two overhead tanks of five-lakh-litre capacity at Sisters’ Colony and Padupadavu would also be taken over.

The city corporation will take over the 14-km-long and 1,100-mm-diameter main water supply pipeline laid from Ramalkatte to Padil on NH 48. In addition, 80 MLD capacity water treatment plant at Ramalkatte and 23.5 MLD capacity water filtration plant at Panambur would also be taken over. Members of the Opposition Congress in the council staged a walkout during Question Hour protesting against the civic body implementing the revised master plan for Mangalore local planning area. The master plan had been prepared by Mangalore Urban Development Authority.

Leader of the Opposition Harinath said that under the revised master plan poor and middle class people would find it difficult to construct houses in small plots. The Mayor should make his stand clear whether the civic body would give permission for constructing houses in such sites or not, he said.

Mayor M. Shankar Bhat said that the Minister for Urban Development, S. Suresh Kumar, had convened a meeting to discuss this subject at Bangalore on Wednesday. A decision to this effect would be taken after that meeting. However, Mr. Harinath said, the council should take a decision to this effect in the council meeting. Unconvinced with the Mayor’s reply the Congress members staged a walk-out.

Many members alleged that streetlights in the city were not being maintained properly. To this, K.N. Vijayaprakash, Commissioner, said that officials had been instructed to address the problem. When members demanded that door numbers be allotted to houses, which had been temporarily suspended, the Mayor ruled that the officials should allot door numbers according to the rules under The Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act.

The Mayor said that the Government was likely to come out with an Ordinance regarding the “Akrama-Sakrama” scheme shortly. Mr. Vijayaprakash said that the civic body would wait till the Ordinance was issued for resuming allotment of door numbers. It was because the provisions in the Ordinance and the KMC Act should not clash while allotting door numbers, he said.

Hindu