Mysuru: The long-pending Hale Undawadi drinking water project seems to have gotten a push with Higher Education Minister GT Devegowda instructing Tahsildars of Mysuru Taluk and Srirangapatna, to speed up the land acquisition process along with the help of engineers within a month’s time.

During the meeting held with district officials on Tuesday at Senate Bhavan here Devegowda asked officials to finalise details pertaining to land acquisition i.e how much of land belongs to the government and private people.

“The drinking water problem in Chamundeshwari constituency and across the city had been brought to the notice of the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. While some initial work was taken up, the Undawadi drinking water project did not get sanctioned. But soon after HD Kumaraswamy became the chief minister he not only approved the Rs 545 crore project, during the recently concluded budget, but also released initial sanction of Rs 50 crore. Once the project becomes reality, it will benefit those people who are forced to wait for over five days to have access to drinking water. Once completed, the projects will benefit more than 104 villages and there will be no water problem till 2051,” he said.

The launch of the project had been delayed over the land issue. The project is expected to add 300 million litres per day of water to the city and nearby villages. The project was proposed under JNNURM.