Mangalore : Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and MLA of Mangalore South N. Yogish Bhat on Thursday expressed displeasure over the slow progress of work on the construction of a new vented dam across the Netravathi at Thumbe.

Mr. Bhat, who visited Thumbe with Mayor Gulzaar Banu to inspect the progress of the work, told the officials of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWS&DB) that more workers and machinery should have been deployed to complete the work by May.

Mr. Bhat instructed L.N. Anand, Executive Engineer of the Board in Mangalore to ask the contractor, Ritwik Projects Ltd. and Swapna Constructs (Joint Venture), to deploy more machines and workers to complete the dam at the earliest. He said that he would take up the matter with the Managing Director of KUWSDB.

Mr. Anand said the contractor had completed 30 per cent of the work.

The Executive Engineer said that the dam, with 343.5 m width and 12 m height, was expected to be ready in June 2013. The dam could store 15 million cubic metres of water, which was enough to meet the water requirements of Mangalore city for 90 days.

The existing vented dam across the river could store up to 4 million cubic metres of water. The new dam being built 6 m to 7 m downstream of the existing vented dam would have 29 pillars and 30 gates.

He said though the height of the dam would be 12 metres and water could be stored up to 7 metres, which was enough for the city. There would be a 5.5 m-wide road on top of the dam.

Mr. Anand said the estimated cost of the dam would be Rs. 75.50 crore, of which the government had released Rs. 19.5 crore.