The Hindu

It will be built across the Nethravathi at Thumbay near the city

• It is expected to augment 3,011 million gallons of water
• Corporation gets administrative and financial clearances

Mangalore, Feb 10: The State Government has cleared the second vented dam across the Nethravathi at Thumbay for the augmented drinking water supply project for the city.

The construction of the dam will start shortly, mayor Vijaya Arun has said.

She was speaking after performing "Ganga pooja" at the existing vented dam at Thumbay on Friday February 9.

Arun said that the Government had given administrative and financial clearances to the Mangalore City Corporation to take up the construction.

The dam will be built 50 meter downstream at Thumbay. It will have a height of seven meter and can augment 3,011 million gallons of water when completed.

It will have automatic sluice gates and will regulate water at optimum level even during rainy season.

The river has an augmentation trail of seven km with the existing dam. When the new dam is fully operational the augmentation trail will be 8.5 km.

The will enable Bantwal town panchayat to benefit from the additional water augmented in summer.

Engineers of the corporation said that the additional augmentation of water would recharge ground water. Streams and rivulets around 25-km radius would become perennial, they said.

The dam has been designed to cater to the water demands of the city till the year 2026. Population of the city for that year has been projected at 16 lakh.

Once the dam is built, the city can have water supply for 45 to 50 days in summer.

The existing dam, built in 1993, can augment 4,891 million litres of water.

It was designed to augment 9,562 million litres of water, according to a report about the status of water in the river. The proposed dam is likely to come up in 10 months.