Mangaluru: The drinking water distribution system in the city is expected to get a facelift with a special meeting of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council on Thursday approving a ₹390-crore proposal for the same.

Once the strengthening of the distribution system is completed, the proposal includes handing over the operation and maintenance of water infrastructure facilities to a private agency for eight years. The agency would be the same which would upgrade the distribution system.

The Opposition BJP in the council strongly opposed the move of the ruling Congress in approving the proposal in a hurry without a clarity on several aspects relating to operation and maintenance.

Mayor Bhaskar K. and the Commissioner of the corporation Mohammed Nazir told the council that the proposal includes building more than 20 overhead water storage tanks, laying new water supply network pipelines covering 1,026 k.m., constructing eight additional boosting pump houses, building a new filtration unit at Ramalkatte near Thumbe, fixing class B multijet water meters to all houses, restoration of roads and drains dug up for laying the pipelines and going for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) control system to monitor the pumping and water supply from Thumbe vented dam to all underground and overhead water storage tanks. The proposal also includes round the clock water supply to all houses and other establishments.

The project would be taken up under ‘Jalasiri’ scheme of Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Programme (KIUWMIP).

Referring to the funding of the project, the Commissioner said that Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) would arrange ₹218.50 crore through the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The balance amount would be borne by the State government.

A KUIDFC official told the council that the project has been designed keeping in mind that the population of the city would reach 10.33 lakh by 2046. Then the demand for water would rise to 236 million litres a day (MLD) from the present 160 MLD.

The water source in the Netravathi would be sufficient to meet the demand in 2046 provided water was stored at the full level of seven mts height at Thumbe vented dam and the full dam capacity (six mts) of AMR Power Project’s dam at Shambhoor, on the upper reaches of Thumbe dam.