JAIPUR: Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria has announced that the four phases of the ambitious Rs. 500-crore Dewas project would be completed on priority to provide drinking water to Udaipur on schedule. The City of Lakes will get water from Mansi Vakal dam by December this year.

Mr. Kataria, while inspecting the longest water transport tunnel in the State near Udaipur over the weekend, said the construction of dams at Akodra and Madri as part of the project's second phase would ensure utilisation of water which was presently flowing to the neighbouring Gujarat.

Work on a significant portion of the 4.6-km-long main tunnel has been completed, while two more tunnels would be constructed to bring water from Akodra dam to Kodiyat village and from Madri dam to the main tunnel.

Nearly 550 million cubic feet of water would be transported to Udaipur through these tunnels by the impact of gravity. Mr. Kataria instructed the officials of the Public Health Engineering Department to supply water from the Dewas project's first phase to fill up Pichola Lake within the next week.

Mr. Kataria noted that the State Government was presently incurring an expenditure of Rs. 25 crores annually on electricity for bringing water from Jaisamand to Udaipur, which would be reduced to about Rs. 7 crores on the completion of the Dewas project.

The capacities of the Akodra and Madri dams have been estimated at 302 mcft and 85.44 mcft, respectively, and their construction under the project's second phase will be undertaken at a cost of Rs. 139.26 crores. The project's cost will be shared between the Urban Development, Tourism and Public Health Engineering Departments.

Work on a significant portion of the main tunnel has been completed

Nearly 550 million cubic feet of water would be transported to Udaipur

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