Mangaluru City Corporation to make technical consultant’s approval mandatory for UGD works costing more than ₹5 lakh

Mangaluru Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur announced any UGD work costing over ₹5 lakh must have mandatory clearance from technical consultant. Councillors suggested empanelment of consultants for UGD projects.

Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur on Tuesday, December 12, said any underground drainage (UGD) work to be executed by the Mangaluru City Corporation costing over ₹5 lakh should have mandatory clearance from the technical consultant nominated for the purpose by the Corporation.

Chairing a meeting on issues related to the UGD system in the City at the Mangala Auditorium of the Corporation here, Mr. Kannur announced this decision following suggestions by the councillors.

He said the Corporation would empanel technical consultants for UGD works, as decided in the previous ordinary meeting, during the council’s next meeting. Any new projects should be undertaken as suggested by the consultants in the coming days, he said. The meeting was convened to discuss UGD issues under projects being undertaken by the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation’s Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Programme (KIUWMIP) and Amrith Scheme.

Leader of the Opposition Praveenchandra Alva said though the MCC claims to have completed the sewage treatment plant and the wet well at Bajal, raw sewage was joining the Netravathi River through Yekkur from the Pumpwell Raja Kaluve. The UGD work that was being executed for about the last four years had not been completed yet, he regretted.

Councillor Shwetha said missing UGD links were not connected near NITK-Surathkal and Munchur, nor were the UGD lines connected to wet wells. Though officials claim that everything was working in order, even the new pumps at wet wells were not working properly, she said.

At this juncture, councillor Naveen D’Souza suggested to empanel consultants for UGD projects too on the lines of consultants for other civil projects. He was joined by the Chief Whip Premananda Shetty, former Mayor Shashidhar Hegde and other councillors. Mr. Shetty said UGD was not properly implemented in Jeppinamogaru and Morgan’s Gate area; MCC itself should take over management of the UGD system, he urged.

Officials informed the meeting that works worth ₹136 crore out of three UGD and one drinking water project costing ₹186.13 crore under Amrith 1.0 were completed so far. Under (KIUWMIP)-ADB, works worth ₹128.75 crore were complete in four UGD projects that started from 2020.