HASSAN: Residents of parched districts of Tumakuru, Kolar, Ramanagaram and Chikkaballapura will be able to quench their thirst if engineers of Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Ltd (VJNL) achieve their target of pumping water as part of Yettinahole Integrated Dinking Water Project after the next monsoon.
“We have taken up work in full swing, and our major goal is to pump water on full scale from coming monsoon,” an engineer of VJNL told Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. These engineers are confident of commencing test pumping of water in January, and meet the deadline to complete all structures by March/April, 2018.
As many as eight weirs have been constructed on various west flowing streams of Sakleshpur in Hassan under Yettinahole project by engineers of Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Limited (VJNL). and likely to pump water to parched districts under the project. VJNL estimates pumping about 24 TMC feet water from the streams of Sakleshpur but scientists of Indian Institute of Sceince, Bengaluru, counter the claims of VJNL engineers, saying only nine TMC feet water will be available for pumping in Yettinahole project.
Civil works, including construction of weirs, have made significant progress in Sakleshpur with officials stating that weir one on Yettinahole stream has been completed except for the flood gap. Similarly, weir four and five, both on Kadumane Hole, are completed. Weirs 6 and 8 on Kerihalla stream and Yettinahole stream, respectively have also been completed.
Construction of weir 7 on Hongadahalla stream, biggest among the all the weirs, engineers are at work to design the weir. Regarding construction of weir 2, engineers said a tunnel is being dug up on Yettinahole stream and half of the works have been completed so far. The tunnel is about 650 meters on Yettinahole stream.
“All structures are on government land and we need land from private persons to lay pipelines. Some have agreed to sacrifice their land for the drinking water project while efforts are on to convince others to lay pipelines for the project,” remarked the VJNL engineer.
