BENGALURU: With pre-commissioning trials being carried out by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), residents of 11 villages in Horamavu, Kalkere and Ramamurthy Nagar are put off by the lack of clarity on when water will be supplied to their houses. Citing the repeated deadlines not met, they demand answers.
The trials are being conducted by BWSSB before supplying water from Cauvery to 110 villages in the peripheral areas of the City.
The Rs 5,550-crore project, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency aimed to supply an additional 750 million litres of water per day to Bengaluru by March 2023 but missed the deadline and many others later.
Areas newly added to the City in 2007 spread across villages in Bommanahalli, Mahadevapura, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Dasarahalli and Byatarayanapura zones were to receive water from them.
Shrikanth, Secretary of Mallappa Layout Residents Welfare Association told TNIE, “we have been repeatedly promised water supply but am yet to see it. In 2014, when they announced the scheme to supply us water, only 18 out of the 400 houses in our layout were ready to pay up the pro-rata charge and Beneficiary Contribution Charges."
He added that CM Siddaramaiah had visited the area in April 2019 and assured them that they would get drinking water in 24 months.
"We convinced all the owners to pay and 98% of them paid the deposit,” Shrikanth said.
BWSSB has collected a total of Rs 1.75 crore from the layout with public paying anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh depending on the dimensions of their houses.
“Three years have passed beyond that deadline and we are still waiting for water. We were handed over approvals and water meters on various dates beginning December 2021 raising our hopes.”
Another resident Vibin Andrews said that they were managing their requirements using borewells and paying for water tankers.
“What is really upsetting is the lack of clarity on when the water will actually reach our homes. We have been hearing about it for very long but have no clear answers on it,” he said.
Kochu Shankar, a resident of Banjara Layout in Horamavu said, “We have paid sums ranging between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000 in 2019. Deadlines are repeatedly given to us but never kept up.”
The numerous deadlines given by BWSSB to TNIE in the past after missing the original one were May-2024, then mid-June and then July-end..
A senior BWSSB offiical said, “The pre-commission trials are on and water is expected to be supplied to them soon.”
In the missing link areas in the villages (areas which were added after the project started), it will take between six and eight month, he added.
BWSSB Chairman Ram Manohar Prashanth or the Public Relations Officer Ramalingappa did not respond to repeated calls by this reporter.
The BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief refused to respond to the issue.
