Mangaluru City Corporation earns more than Rs 25 crore through water supply

Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has earned more than Rs 25 crore a year as net savings through the drinking water supply in 60 wards of the city. While the city corporation collected Rs 49.7 crore through water cess in 2023-24, the revenue as of Feb 28 in 2024-25 was Rs 43.5 crore. The city corporation earned a net profit of Rs 28.1 crore in 2023-24 and saved Rs 25.8 crore in 2024-25 till Feb.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated Jalasiri 24x7 drinking water scheme that commenced in 2019 has not been completed yet.
MLC Ivan D'Souza, who raised the matter during the recently concluded legislature session, told TOI that he spoke to district minister Dinesh Gundu Rao to convene a meeting immediately to expedite the Jalasiri Drinking Water Scheme, which is being executed by the KUIDFC through an agency.
"The scheme has not seen completion yet, and the agency implementing the project has been given many deadline extensions too. I suggested the minister blacklist the agency if required. Though the scheme aims at providing potable drinking water to citizens without interruptions, the agency has failed to provide connections to residents yet," D'Souza said.
The MLC sought details of the drinking water supply network in Mangaluru city and the Jalasiri 24x7 project from urban development minister Byrathi Suresh. In reply to the query, the minister stated that while the city corporation collected Rs 49.7 crore through water cess in 2023-24, the expenditure was only Rs 21.6 crore. Similarly, while the MCC collected Rs 43.5 crore in 2024-25, the expenditure was Rs 17.6 crore, the MLC said.
According to the minister, the Jalasiri 24x7 project is being implemented with funding of Rs 280 crore from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Rs 248.1 crore from the state govt (including the matching fund of Rs 114 crore granted through the Mangaluru Smart City Limited), Rs 88.9 crore from the city corporation and contributions from the KMF Milk Dairy, National Institute of Technology Karnataka and others, D'Souza said.
"I will continue to put pressure on the govt to ensure that the KUIDFC and the agency that implements the Jalasiri scheme complete the project at the earliest," he added.