Bhatkal: Cleaning and desilting work on the Sarabi river, which flows through some of Bhatkal’s older neighbourhoods, is scheduled to begin on November 17. Ahead of the work, the contractor and officials from the Irrigation Department, Karwar, inspected sections of the river in Dongarpalli and Daranta to assess the site.
Contractor Sunit Hegde said the work would involve deepening the river and removing accumulated silt, sludge and thorny vegetation. The project will be formally launched in the presence of Bhatkal MLA Mankal S. Vaidya and other officials.
Following an announcement by then Karnataka minister and Bhatkal MLA Mankal S. Vaidya that he had secured Rs 10 crore for the cleaning and restoration of the Sarabi river, senior Irrigation Department engineer Anand Kumar visited Bhatkal from Mangaluru and inspected the river near Daranta and Ghausia Street.
Under the project, cleaning will be carried out along a 1.9-km stretch from the Kudrebirappa temple near Chouthani to Dongarpalli. The plan includes removing accumulated silt, sludge and thorny vegetation and increasing the river's depth to three metres.
At the time, officials had said the work would begin in January 2026 and be completed within three months, by March. However, the project has been delayed by nearly eight months and is now scheduled to commence on November 17.
The sanctioned amount is also expected to be insufficient to restore the entire five-kilometre-long river. Consequently, the initial focus was proposed to be on constructing a barrage at Dongarpalli and cleaning the most severely affected stretches.
Karwar engineer Rajani Talekar, Bhatkal Tanzeem president Inayatullah Shabandari, general secretary Azizur Rahman Ruknuddin Nadvi, advocate Imran Lanka, Iqbal Suhail, Bilal Qamri, Adam Panambur, Anjum Gangawali Nadvi, Faizan Nadvi, Shamoun, Iqbal and several others were present during the inspection.
Sewage discharge continues
Even as the river-cleaning project is set to begin, sewage continues to flow into the Sarabi river from the pumping station at Ghausia Street, raising concerns among residents about the effectiveness of the proposed work.
Residents living along the river have questioned how the benefits of the cleaning exercise can be sustained if the discharge of untreated sewage from the pumping station is not stopped.
On November 7, Bhatkal City Municipal Council (CMC) Commissioner Babasaheb Mane and Assistant Executive Engineer Sadanand from Karwar inspected the pumping station at Ghausia Street. During their interaction with concerned residents, they assured them that a team of engineers from the Water Board in Karwar would visit the site on Wednesday, November 11, and take necessary steps to stop the sewage discharge.
However, the team had not arrived at the site by Wednesday evening, and sewage continued to flow from the pumping station, prompting strong resentment among local residents.
SahilOnline attempted to contact CMC Commissioner Babasaheb Mane and Assistant Executive Engineer Sadanand over the phone to seek their response, but neither answered the calls.