BENGALURU: The long-planned move to augment Bengaluru’s daily drinking water supply by 110 Million Litres Per Day (MLD) from Yettinahole, a tributary of the Netravati river in Sakleshpur taluk, will not happen any time soon. Though the refurbished Tippagondanahalli (TG Halli) reservoir on Magadi Road will be completed by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) only next month, the pipeline laying work to supply water has not been completed due to land acquisition issues, said multiple official sources.
The reservoir, located 29km from the city, was completely refurbished at a cost of Rs 291.57 crore, with a new water treatment plant and sewage treatment plant. With its storage capacity of 74 feet, it used to be Bengaluru’s water lifeline for decades after it was built by Sir M Visvesvaraya in 1933. However, it was shut in December 2012, when chemicals made it unfit for consumption.
The Yettinahole project will supply this reservoir with 1.7 Trillion Million Cubic (TMC) feet of water. Parts of Yelahanka, Dasarahalli, Raja Rajeshwari Nagar and Yeshwanthpur in Bengaluru are set to receive additional water when it is commissioned. Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Hassan, Ramanagara, Chitradurga and Tumakuru are other areas which will benefit from it.
A top BWSSB official working on the ‘Revival/Refurbishment of Tippagondanahalli Water Supply Scheme’ told TNIE, “We can safely say that by October-end, we will be ready for commissioning from our end. Some equipment needs to be installed – filter bed, compressor, static mixer and ozonisation system. The filter bed has just been completed. We have also applied for power supply from Bescom and KPTCL which we hope to get by the end of this month.”
The revised deadline for the project BWSSB commenced in 2019 was March 2023. “The reservoir will be ready but it cannot be utilised unless we receive water. A portion of the pipeline is stuck with no work done,” he added. A senior official of the Yettinahole project confirmed it to TNIE. “Water will flow mostly by the gravity feeder channel for 261.69km.
The pipeline to supply water to TG Halli needs to be laid only for a length of 42km. They are massive 2-metre diameter pipelines. Of this, 10km of pipeline laying work passing through 11 villages is pending as farmers in Tumakuru and Ramanagara had issues giving their land to lay the pipeline. The compensation award was passed recently and we hope to get the land in a fortnight,” he said.
Laying such mammoth pipelines is a tedious job, he explained. “The gradient needs to be assessed. We could take a minimum of six months and it could stretch even up to one year to be completed. Water can be supplied to Bengaluru only when it is ready,” he added.