Infrastructure projects achieve financial progress
Udupi (Karnataka), June 20: The urban infrastructure development projects, taken up by the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP) with Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance in five towns in undivided Dakshina Kannada, has achieved financial progress ranging from over 55 per cent to 84 per cent.
The KUDCEMP, which had taken up various development activities like improvement and development of basic infrastructure, planning and implementation of sustained operations and maintenance of infrastructure in the city/towns of Mangalore, Puttur, Ullal, Udupi and Kundapura had achieved financial progress of 55.46 per cent, 77.52, 72.94, 83.41 and 82.69 per cent respectively. All the projects, started in 2001, were scheduled to be completed by 2009.
While the KUDCEMP had achieved 100 per cent progress by completing works in storm water drains, slum improvement (except slow progress in Kundapura) and municipal facilities, the major components of water supply in the five towns were in various stages of completion.
Giving details of the progress achieved by KUDCEMP, Deputy Project Director J R Lobo told sources here that in Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) where the water supply project had been taken up at a cost of Rs 306 crore, about 80 per cent of the work had been completed, while the Under Ground Drainage (UGD) work to meet the requirements of the population by 2026 was being implemented. In Udupi city municipal area, where the project cost was Rs 128 crore, 99 per cent of the work on the major component of water supply at a cost of Rs 54.24 crore had been completed to serve 85,000 people in the city by 2026.
Mr Rajashekar, the Executive Engineer of Project Implementation Unit in Udupi, who took the visiting mediapersons around, said the main advantage of the water supply scheme in Udupi was that water would be supplied from Manipal main tank to the entire city by gravity without any pumping. Work on the 22-acre new land filling area for solid waste management on Manipal-Udupi road was progressing slowly due to onset of monsoon and court staying the work.
Mr Lobo said Rs 24.74 crore had been spent on the water supply project in Puttur town municipality, while the work on slum improvement, storm water drains, solid waste management, municipal facilities and road junction improvement have been completed.
In Ullal town, where the project had been taken up at a cost of Rs 28 crore, works on slum improvement, storm water drains and municipal facilities have been completed.
Mr Lobo said that with the Rs 32 crore project in Kundapura, the KUDCEMP had completed project components such as storm water drains, municipal facilities and road junction improvement, while the work on solid waste management was stalled due to objections from the public over site selection.
To a query, he said the work on UGD scheme in Mangalore had been slowed down because of the objections mainly raised by the MCC on the quality of pipes and other equipment. All the lapses found in the scheme were now being rectified.
UNI