Mangaluru: Underground drainage may be fully functional in May 2020, admits mayor

MANGALURU: With Mangaluru City Corporation still struggling to get its act with regard to the missing links, the underground drainage (UGD) network laid across the city may not benefit the people anytime soon. MCC has initiated works on nine out of 27 such missing links under various schemes including Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation scheme and the city may reap the benefits of this sometime in May 2020.

Admitting the likelihood of this delay, mayor Bhaskar Moily said residents looking forward to connect their leach pits to the UGD network of MCC will not happen anytime this year. A 360-km-odd long UGD network has been laid across the city under the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP) funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan more than a decade ago.

The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation which handled the KUDCEM project on behalf of MCC handed it over to the civic body more than five years ago. With missing links in the UGD network in 27 places, connecting individual leach pits to the network will only result in sewage gushing out of manholes at dead end of the network rather than its flow to the nearest sewerage treatment plants (STPs).

Mohammed Nazir, commissioner, MCC said as of now, the civic body has taken up work on joining missing links at 9 out of 27 places. These include Surathkal, Jeppinamogaru, Jeppu and Maroli areas. In Surathkal, MCC is rebuilding around 1,200-off manholes that were then built using laterite stones with reinforced cement concrete (RCC). These manholes built on sandy soil structure have collapsed and work on them is yet to start.

“As things stand, we expect work on missing links in UGD network to be completed by May 2020,” the mayor said, adding, the estimated cost of completing the missing link works is Rs 59.73 crore, which the civic body is taking up under AMRUT scheme. Incidentally, Rs 185 crore grant has been earmarked form MCC under AMRUT scheme of which the civic body is expending Rs 148.42 crore on UGD related works including the missing links work.