Mangaluru: Following an acute shortage of water supply, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has started off partial shutdown of some of its units.

MRPL?Director (Refinery) M Venkatesh said that they were initiating partial shutdown of certain units and also running some units on reduced capacity to sustain minimal operations with available water.

The water shortage issue and restrictions imposed on pumping water from Nethravathi River for industrial use has led to the decision. The MRPL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday about the same.

MRPL?Managing Director H Kumar said that they will review the water management daily and will deliver the best even in this time of crisis.

“However, if the situation doesn’t improve in the next seven days, there is every likelihood of product supply in Karnataka getting affected,” he said.

MRPL and MSEZ draw about six million gallons per day (MGD) and eight MGD respectively from River Nethravathi.

The refinery’s production includes 5 lakh tonnes of diesel, one lakh tonne of petrol and 75,000 tonnes of LPG per month which caters to the need of major regions of the state.