Bengaluru: Listing the advantages of the Rs 6,000 crore Mekedatu hydro-electric project, that the government hopes will provide drinking water to two- thirds of Bengaluru, Water Resources Minister, M B Patil said on Tuesday that Karnataka was fully within its rights to go ahead with it.
“The project does not violate the Cauvery Water Tribunal award, which allows us to use 190 tmc ft of the river water and generate around 400 MW power from it,” he told reporters here.
Noting that there were no reservoirs below the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) and Kabini dams in the Cauvery basin, he pointed out that this let a lot of the river water flow directly into the sea during the monsoon, when it could be stored.
The construction of the balancing storage reservoir at Mekedatu would not only prevent this colossal wastage. but also help Tamil Nadu as Karnataka would be able to comfortably release water to it every month as prescribed by the Supreme Court, the minister said.
“The reservoir, which will store 67 TMC ft of water, is expected to cost around Rs 5917 crore to build,” he added. While the state government does not anticipate any problems with the Central Water Commission and the Supreme Court on its plans to build the reservoir and intends to keep them fully informed on its progress, it is trying hard to convince Tamil Nadu that it will serve its interests as well.
“We will meet the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister to convince them,” the minister assured, explaining that besides being legally on the right track in constructing the reservoir, the government also had the required land for the project as most of it belonged to the revenue and forest departments. “The compensation for land acquisition has been discussed in the proposal,” he said.
Water rationing in IT city?
With the level of water dipping close to the dead storage level in KRS dam, the state government could be forced to restrict supply water of water across Bengaluru city, according to water resources minister M B Patil.
He told the media here on Tuesday it would be impossible to continue with normal supply of drinking water in the city till June. "We may face at least two to three TMC ft shortage, and the government might be forced to ration water supply during summer. Even after May, availability of water depends on the monsoon,'' he added.
He said that officers of his department were constantly discussing the issue of shortage of water with their counterparts in BWSSB officials. And though officers of BWSSB have proposed pumping water at dead storage level at a cost of Rs 40 crores, officers of his department were apprehensive of such an approach as it was never attempted in the past.
"If the situation warrants, we might have to pump water at dead storage level in order to maintain water supply to Bengaluru. Even in worst case scenario, we cannot pump more than four to five TMCFT of water from dead storage level,'' added Mr Patil.
