PATHANAMTHITTA: As the construction of the Nilakkal drinking water project halted, the water supply during the Sabarimala pilgrimage has again been handed over to a private agency. The Devaswom Board will suffer loss of crores due to this.

As the number of pilgrims may increase this time, water will have to be brought in more tankers. Three tanks with a storage capacity of 15 lakh litres have to be filled with water. Before the Covid, the Devaswom Board spent around Rs 2 crore to deliver water in tanker lorries in one season.

Only the pump house and treatment plant 13 MLD capacity on the banks of Kakkatar, Seethathodu were completed in six years. The project was to purify the water here and bring it to Nilakkal through a 26 km pipeline. 4500 families would have benefitted from this.

It is alleged that the Nilakkal drinking water project was sabotaged by some officials. The project was to be commissioned in 2019. The water authority officials say that the contractor was dismissed early because the works were not carried out on time. The total cost of the project is Rs 13,000 crore.