Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah chairs a review meeting at the Mangaluru City Corporation hall on Thursday
Mangaluru: The cabinet is likely to approve a Rs 350-crore grant for upgrading the underground drainage (UGD) network within Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) limits at its meeting chaired by chief minister DK Shivakumar in Mangaluru on Friday. In addition, around 35% of the city does not have UGD coverage, he said. Accordingly, a proposal seeking cabinet approval for the release of Rs 350 crore will be placed before the meeting. The minister said officials had sought around Rs 60 crore for drinking water projects covering Kundapura, Udupi, Puttur, Mangaluru and neighbouring areas. However, the govt has placed a proposal seeking Rs 167 crore before the cabinet.
The minister said Mangaluru’s UGD network was in a poor condition and required complete reconstruction in several areas. The proposal also seeks relaxation of certain conditions imposed by the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), which, according to the minister, would help utilise the available funds more effectively. “We have placed the proposal before the cabinet to ease those norms, and we expect that to go through as well,” he said.
Much of the existing network was built using laterite stones, many sections of which have collapsed. Urban development minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah, who chaired a review meeting at the MCC office on Thursday, said a proposal seeking funds had been submitted to the cabinet.