The Hindu 13.11.2009
KUIDFC moots 24-hour water supply in city
Staff Correspondent
| Project said to be viable for Mangalore |
MANGALORE: Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) can start supplying drinking water to the people round-the-clock through public-private partnership (PPP), according to Arvind Shrivastava, Managing Director, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC).
If the civic body wants, the KUIDFC can prepare a project report as it has been found that such a project is viable, he said.
Participating in a discussion on water supply at a meeting convened by Mayor M. Shankar Bhat here on Wednesday, Mr. Shrivastava said that the KUIDFC had implemented round-the-clock water supply schemes in select wards in Belgaum, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad since 2008 on a trial basis. It was supplying water to 1.25 lakh people covering 25,000 houses in the three cities.
It was now planning to extend the scheme to all wards of the three city corporations, he said. Mr. Shrivastava said that the KUIDFC had identified Mangalore city, Puttur and Ullal for trying out the 24x7 water supply scheme if the elected councils of these civic bodies passed the required resolutions. Mr. Shrivastava said that if the city corporation plugged leaks, estimated to be between 30 and 40 per cent, in the existing water supply network, it could save a large quantity of water.
Leakage checked
The KUIDFC had brought down leakage to 7 per cent in the three city corporations where it had implemented the 24x7 scheme.
Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj said that as a new 7-m-high vented dam was being built at Thumbe, there would be no problem with availability of water.
